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Every hour that brought the lord nearer to Liscannor added a weight to his boso the bleak road to Ennistimon his heart was very heavy indeed At Maurice's -place on the road, it had been his custoive his horse a h the poor beast would fain have stopped there He drove the ani of unrest which would not allow him to pause He hated the country now, and almost told himself that he hated all whom it contained How miserable was his lot, that he should have bound hi of his splendour, in the first days of a career that ht have been so splendid, to misfortune that was squalid and mean as this To him, to one placed by circumstances as he was placed, it was squalid and irl who the rocks he had so bound himself with vile manacles, had so crippled, hampered and fettered hilories of his station Wealth almost unlimited was at his coifts of appearance and disposition as best serve to win general love He had talked to his brother of his unfitness for his earldom; but he could have blazoned it forth at Scroope and up in London, with the best of young lords, and have loved well to do so But this adventure, as he had been wont to call it, had fallen upon him, and had broken him as it were in pieces Thousands a year he would have paid to be rid of his adventure; but thousands a year, he kneell, were of no avail He lish Mr Croith offers almost royal; but he had been able so to discern the persons concerned as to know that royal offers, of which the royalty would be simply money royalty, could be of no avail Hoould that woer who had come to her with offers of money,--and proposed to take her child into soe would Father Marty have expressed hiement? And so the Earl of Scroope drove on with his heart falling ever lower and loithin his bosom

It had of course been necessary that he should forht at the little inn at Ennisti there, and then to take one of the country cars on to Liscannor It would, he thought, be best to see the priest first Let him look at his task which way he would, he found that every part of it was bad An intervieith Father Marty would be very bad, for he must declare his intentions in such a way that no doubt respecting them must be left on the priest's mind He would speak only to three persons;--but to all those three he must now tell the certain truth There were causes at hich made it impossible that Kate O'Hara should becoht tear hie Subject to that decision they ed to him almost as they pleased He would explain this first to the priest if it should chance that he found the priest at home