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 LI E) R.AR.Y 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N IVERSITY 
 
 or ILLINOIS 
 
 V. I
 
 U-v J 
 
 T^M 
 
 Ci/%4^
 
 KILCORRAN 
 
 BY 
 
 The Hon. Mrs. FETHERSTONHAUGH 
 
 " But none shall triumph a whole life through : 
 For death is one, and the fates are three " 
 
 The Triumph of Time 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I 
 
 LONDON 
 RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON 
 
 IJublisI^crs in ©rbirtiarg to |)er UTajestg i\z ^nKn 
 
 1877 
 
 i,All Rights Reserved^
 
 CLAY AND TAYLOR, BUNGAY.
 
 V, I 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. COMING HOME 
 II. LIL 
 
 ^ III. " FAIR, FAIR, WITH GOLDEN HAIR " 
 
 cJ IV. "kittane" 
 
 i' 
 
 ^ V. KYRIE, ELEISON 
 
 ,^ VI. CHE SARA, SARA ... 
 
 ^ VII. " FAIR IN THE FEARLESS OLD FASHION " 
 
 IP 
 yVIII. AN EVENING AT CORRAGHMORE 
 
 VT IX. GARDE LA FOI 
 
 /'x. "poor jack" 
 
 P^ XI. FORTUNE DOES NOT CHANGE THE RACE . , 
 
 ^XIL BARREN HONOUR 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 21 
 41 
 
 87 
 101 
 123 
 145 
 163 
 193 
 211 
 229
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 " Out of the golden remote wild west where the sea without 
 
 shore is, 
 Full of the sunset, and sad, if at all, with the fulness of joy, 
 As a wind sets in with the autumn that blows from the region 
 
 of stories, ' 
 
 Blows with a perfume of songs and of memories beloved from 
 
 a boy." — Hesperia. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 CHAPTEH I. 
 
 COMING HOME. 
 
 Y story opens in the north-west 
 of Ireland, and the golden sun- 
 shine of an August evening is 
 shining over the lovely little Rhua valley, 
 which takes its name (signifying '^red") 
 from the river Rhua running through it, 
 the bright red tinge of which, telling of 
 iron ore near the surface of the land, 
 causes it well to deserve its cognomen. 
 The valley stretches away towards the 
 south as far as eye can see, — intersected 
 by the river, — but on the north it is
 
 KILCORRAN. 
 
 bounded, some three miles off, by a broad 
 blue line, where the Atlantic rolls up to 
 the shore and carries back with it the tiny- 
 contribution towards its grandeur of the 
 Ehua river. 
 
 Strange stories are told of this same 
 river ! stories which, in looking at it laugh- 
 ing, and rippling, and dancing along, with 
 the swallows skimming its surface, are 
 hard to credit ; — stories of fatal floods 
 roaring down the valley and carrying all 
 before them, and leaving only a dark line 
 of wrack behind to show their path of de- 
 struction ! — floods which ruined many a 
 poor family, and ended even many an 
 honest life in endeavouring to save their 
 flocks and herds, — and more than one 
 woman in the glen has fatal cause to 
 remember by the widow's weeds then
 
 COMING HOME. 
 
 donned, the time, ten years ago now, 
 when the Rhua had risen for the last 
 time. 
 
 In looking at the valley the first thing 
 which catches the eye are the grey walls 
 of two fine old buildings, half habitable 
 half in ruin, which confront each other 
 from the heights on either side of the 
 valley, the little village of Shaughane 
 lying low down between them. On th& 
 right hand side (looking down the river) 
 stands the old-established convent of the 
 Sacr^ Cceur, looking as if it were keep- 
 ing guard over the peace of the village 
 below, — and the sound of the vesper bell 
 rings out clear and sweet on the evening 
 air, as it summons to prayer the pure good 
 souls within its walls. Also on the same 
 side of the valley but a mile or two
 
 KILCORRAN. 
 
 further up the river, large groups of trees 
 and the smoke rising from some just 
 visible chimneys betoken another place of 
 some pretensions. This is Corraghmore, 
 once almost a ruin, but now restored and 
 renovated by its present possessor ; and 
 few more luxurious or more comfortable 
 houses coiild be found in all the north of 
 Ireland . 
 
 A jovial, kind-hearted Irishman is Sir 
 Derrick Corraghmore, and he has married 
 the kindest, best-natured of Irishwomen, 
 so small wonder is it that this hospitable 
 pair find^ little difficulty in filling their 
 house autumn after autumn, even to the 
 extent they wish, and no one ever leaves 
 Corraghmore without heartily endorsing 
 their host's parting speech, ^^we hope 
 you'll come back to us soon."
 
 COMING HOME. 
 
 On the opposite side of tlie valley, and 
 on the hill which faces the convent of 
 Sacr^ Coeur, is the ruin of the old castle of 
 Kilcorran, once of great size, but now 
 only one wing of it even habitable. A 
 dark background of trees stretches up the 
 hill behind it ; desolate and grand it 
 stands out like a monument of the past; 
 and still over the massive archway leading 
 into the courtyard, on the gates them- 
 selves, and on the great oak door, can be 
 read the proud defiant motto of the owners 
 of the castle, — " God for the Trenches, 
 who shall be a2:ainst them." 
 
 Now, there is but one part of the house 
 ever used which is the very centre of it, 
 and that some twenty years ago was 
 made into a very comfortable bachelor's 
 quarter by the then owner, Mr. Trench,
 
 KILCORRAN. 
 
 who came there for a few months every 
 year until his death, accompanied by his 
 young son NeaL Since then the house 
 had been uninhabited for years, until 
 Neal Trench, returning from one of his 
 many expeditions to foreign countries, 
 came to the conclusion that the time had 
 come when he must marry and settle down 
 at last, — and to prepare the way for so 
 great a change, decided that it would be 
 as well for him to live a few months 
 alternately at his home in the south of 
 England, where the Trenches had settled 
 themselves of late years, and at the old 
 castle in the north of Ireland, where 
 generations of them had been bred and 
 born, — until he should have learnt to give 
 up the wandering life which had so strong 
 an attraction for him.
 
 COMING HOME. 
 
 So the half-rotten and torn old flag 
 has been with difficulty hoisted to its 
 old place on the tower of the castle, and a 
 crowd of ragged retainers have dragged 
 Neal Trench, in spite of all remonstrance, 
 up the hill to his dilapidated mansion, 
 and are now wishing him luck with much 
 hand-shaking, and as clear an articula- 
 tion as copious draughts of whiskey will 
 allow. ^ 
 
 The recipient of these honours appears 
 to receive them with a half shy, half 
 sleepily amused look, and is obviously 
 considerably perplexed at the warmth of 
 the speeches and harangues showered 
 upon him. Being almost a stranger to 
 them, after years of life in England and 
 many others spent in far-off countries, he 
 cannot realize that to these people who
 
 10 KILCORRAN. 
 
 have never stirred out of their own small 
 world of the Rhua valley, he is almost 
 still the boy they remember galloping 
 through the village twenty years ago! 
 And though he knows the characteristics 
 of his countrymen too well to accept as 
 Gospel all they say, he wakes up a little 
 out of his usual insouciance^ and his heart 
 warms to them more than he had thought 
 possible, as their kindly and regretful 
 comments on the ^^good ould man that's 
 gone," tell him that his father's memory 
 is still retained in their hearts. 
 
 An hour later, as he finds his chance 
 of getting dinner at anything like a 
 reasonable hour becoming smaller by 
 degrees and beautifully less, — Neal 
 Trench takes up his hat, lights a big
 
 COMING HOME. 11 
 
 cigar, and saunters out on to the wide 
 stone terrace which overlooks the valley 
 beneath. 
 
 Like all the rest, this terrace has a 
 most dilapidated appearance, — some of 
 the coping-stones have here and there 
 fallen away, and those that are left are 
 chipped and broken ; but the green mosses 
 and rock-creepers have filled up the cracks 
 and interstices, and feathery ferns ara 
 springing out of the ruined wall at all 
 corners, as if nature were trying to con- 
 ceal the effects of time by covering the 
 old walls with a cloak of green. Far 
 down below, the river is gliding peace- 
 fully along, and the meadows on either 
 side look almost unnaturally green in the 
 rays of the setting sun. They are shin-
 
 12 KILCORRAN. 
 
 ing too on the lattice windows of a quaint 
 little cottage wliicli stands on a large 
 peninsula of ground surrounded almost 
 entirely by the river. The latter makes 
 at this point so deep a bend in its course, 
 as to entirely smTOund the little house, 
 stable, and garden, excej)t for the narrow 
 strip of pasture-ground which connects the 
 little peninsula with the mainland. As 
 a wide ditch full of running water, and 
 strongly fenced one side, runs across this 
 strip of land dividing it from the public 
 road leading to the village, all communi- 
 cation with the ^^Eiver House" (as the 
 little white cottage is called) is conducted 
 by means of a wooden bridge, crossing 
 the river a few yards below the larger one 
 of grey stone, over wliicli the public road 
 passes.
 
 COMING HOME, 13 
 
 The little house itself makes a most 
 picturesque spot in the landscape ; its 
 white-washed walls, in strong contrast 
 with the green veranda running round the 
 house, and the bright yellow colour of the 
 newly thatched roof, make a vivid patch 
 of colouring together. And where years 
 ago a mill-wheel had turned round, there 
 was now only a tiny little water-fall 
 shining white and silvery in the evening 
 light. 
 
 The long sloping hill which stretched 
 from the terrace of old Kilcorran Castle 
 down to the valley below, was covered 
 with small Scotch firs and larches, inter- 
 mixed with a few birch and mountain- 
 ash; and a tolerably clear path went 
 v/inding down through the wood towards 
 the River House and the village.
 
 14 KILCORRAN, 
 
 Neal Trench's peaceful reverie is in- 
 terrupted by tlie wheezy voice of the 
 autocrat of the household, Mrs. Bridget 
 Maguire, house-keeper and care-taker for 
 many years past of the home of the 
 Trench's, — who waddled as fast as her 
 increasing years and obesity would per- 
 mit, out of the house and across the 
 terrace to him, with an inquiry as to 
 what '^ his honner would like for dinner 
 the night ? " 
 
 ^' Anything there is," returns Neal, 
 with that vagueness common to the mas- 
 culine mind on all subjects connected with 
 house-keeping. 
 
 ^^ Faith I it's little enough is in the 
 house, at all at all," pants .out the per- 
 plexed female, ^'for Lanty Doolan's fat 
 sheep which we was to have kilt the day.
 
 COMING HOME, 15 
 
 sorra a bit could they catch him, though 
 all the boys in the barony was runnin' 
 over the mountains afther the baste the 
 whole blessed mornin' ! " 
 
 *' Is there any beef ? " suggests Neal, 
 thinking that possibly that class of quad- 
 ruped was likely to accept its fate with 
 greater equanimity and resignation than 
 the rebellious mutton had shown. 
 
 ^^ Is it beef? Deed then the last bit 
 of it this week was sold to the gentle-folk 
 at Corraghmore over yonder ; they said 
 they must have it, for they'd the heighth 
 of quality comin' to stay ! " 
 
 ^^ It strikes me I'd better go and dine 
 
 
 
 with Corraghmore ! " mutters Neal to 
 himself, but the old lady after much 
 blinking and thinking suggests : 
 
 ^^ There's some chickens will be here
 
 16 KILCORRAN. 
 
 soon if that would bo plasin' to yer 
 lionnor ? Miss Fane said I might send 
 to her for poulthry and eggs when the 
 masther came home, and I jist sent down 
 for some, and maybe they'll be comin' 
 soon." 
 
 ^^Wlio's Miss Fane?" inquires Mr. 
 Trench, knocking the ash off his cigar, 
 and feeling that he need waste no more 
 time over so unprofitable a speculation as 
 to what he will have for dinner. 
 
 ^^Deed, she's just the young lady that 
 lives at the River House down there." 
 
 ^^ She doesn't live all alone ? " 
 
 '^ Faith, it's pretty nigh alone she is, 
 for the ould man's but a poor crathur and 
 not a bit of sinse in him ; and it's Miss 
 Lil as looks to everything, bit of a thing 
 though she be."
 
 COMING HOME. 17 
 
 ^^ Where did they come from, and how 
 long have they been living at the River 
 House ? " asks Neal. 
 
 ^^ Maybe seven years now," answers 
 fat Mrs. Maguire, '^ and folks say that 
 the ould man has a power o' money 
 and very grand people belongin' to him; 
 but since he went daft sorra a bit have 
 any of his friends ever come to see him, 
 barrin' the young English Lord whom 
 they say Miss Lil, the purty crathur, is to 
 marry." 
 
 ^'And the old man's name is Fane?" 
 says Mr. Trench, musingly. ^^ That 
 sounds more English than Irish." 
 
 '' Troth, and in England 'twas he was 
 
 born, yer honner, — and he's lived over 
 
 there all his life till he came here. He's 
 
 but a poor thing is the ould man, but a 
 VOL. I. 2.
 
 18 KILCORRAN. 
 
 purtier, sonsier cratliur than liis daughter 
 never lived, as high and low would tell 
 ye!" 
 
 '-'' Well, perhaps I shall make their 
 acquaintance before long, ]\Irs. Maguire, 
 and judge for myself." 
 
 ^' Deed, an it's not likely, yer homier, 
 at all at all ; — the ould man never stirs 
 off his demesne, and the young lady rides 
 miles and miles over the counthry and the 
 mountins all day on a baste the likes o' 
 which ye liavn't often seen ! " 
 
 ^'Wliat sort of beast?" inquires Mr. 
 Trench, somewhat puzzled. 
 
 ^^ Sure ! it's a liarse, in coorse," re- 
 turns Mrs. Maguire with contemptuous 
 pity, — ^^but it's got the very divil in it! 
 Many's the time when I'm drivin' home 
 from market on the car, that baste comes
 
 COMING HOME, 19 
 
 flyin' past with Miss Lil on it, goin' along 
 as aisy as if it had rale wings to it, and 
 the neighbours '11 tell me later that maybe 
 afore an hour's by, they'll both be on the 
 other side of Slieye Garragh, that big 
 mountin yonder, and sorra a one could 
 say how they got there ! And sometimes 
 the baste will stand like a lamb whilst 
 Miss Lil will be spakin' to me, and then 
 agin it'll dance and go on its hind legs 
 like a Christian until me heart's in me 
 mouth wid fear; and there are times 
 when I think the fairies have got hould of 
 it, — though whisht ! — it's not the ^ good 
 people ' I'd be spakin' aginst, ony way ! " 
 And Mrs. Maguire crosses herself and 
 looks hurriedly round, lest the spirits 
 should be hovering near enough to over- 
 hear the remark; — and finally, with a
 
 20 KILCORRAN. 
 
 *^good evenin' to ycz," retires back to 
 tlie house, and the regions therein from 
 whence she came. 
 
 In a few more minutes Neal Trench 
 also leaves the terrace, and goes down the 
 flight of steps leading from it to a little 
 postern door, which opens on to the foot- 
 path in the wood.
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 « Thine eyes that are quiet, thine hands that are tender, thy 
 lips that are loving, 
 Comfort and cool me as dew in the dawn of a moon like a 
 dream."— Hesperia .
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 LIL. 
 
 E lights another cigar, and saun- 
 ters slowly down the little 
 twisting, winding path, thinji- 
 ing to himself meanwhile that it will be 
 somewhat difficult for a man who is not 
 a particularly keen sportsman to kill time 
 in so out-of-the-way a place as Shaughane. 
 He tries to console himself, firstly with the 
 thought that at least the great library he 
 had been sitting in just now, was a library 
 in reality as well as in name, for its walls 
 were covered from ceiling to floor with
 
 2A KILCORRAN. 
 
 masses of books which his father had 
 collected for many years ; and secondly, 
 with the fact that the Corraghmores are 
 living scarce two miles off, and they 
 are old friends of his — in fact it is to 
 their cousin, Janet Airlie, a bonnie 
 Scotch heiress, that he is engaged to be 
 married. 
 
 He comes suddenly on to a sort of 
 plateau on the side of the hill, where the 
 trees have been cut away to admit of a 
 view over the valley, and where a broken 
 rustic seat lying on its side half over the 
 edge, seems to remonstrate with the deso- 
 lation in which everything has been left. 
 The idea enters Neal Trench's mind of 
 sitting there wltilst he finishes his cigar, 
 and he proceeds to try and hoist ujd the 
 recumbent bench into a more useful and
 
 LIL. 25 
 
 becoming attitude. But the wood is rot- 
 ten, and 23art of its legs have got twisted 
 up with the roots of a mountain ash, and 
 the result is that the whole thing begins 
 to crack and splinter in every direction. 
 
 ^^ You mustn't do that," says a clear 
 young voice close behind him ; and looking 
 hastily round he sees a girl standing on 
 the side of the path leading up from the 
 village. 
 
 *^ Why not?" inquires Neal, with an 
 amused smile. 
 
 ^^ Because it's Mr. Trench's seat, and 
 he's come home again now, and might 
 want to sit on it himself ! " says the girl, 
 with a mischievous gleam in her frank 
 grey eyes, as she surveys the total wreck 
 which is all that is left of the rustic 
 bench.
 
 2(5 KILCORRAN. 
 
 " I don't think that he or any one else 
 will do so now then, do you ? " 
 
 ^^ No," laughs the girl, '^ and it serves 
 him right for letting the old place go to 
 rack and ruin as he has done." 
 
 ^^ But he's been away, hasn't he, and 
 perhaps didn't know it ? " suggests Neal 
 gravely, feeling rather as if he were being 
 brought to justice before the little child- 
 ish figure standing so calmly opposite to 
 him, and surveying him with the candid 
 curiosity of a stranger ; — and then, for 
 fear of hearing his conduct still more 
 severely criticized, he hastily adds : 
 
 ^^ I may as well confess that I am Neal 
 Trench himself, so pray be merciful in 
 your comments on him ! " 
 
 ^^ No, you're not," answers the girl, 
 quietly.
 
 LIL, 27 
 
 ^^ But I suppose I ought to know best, 
 surely — " says Neal, laughing. ^^ Will 
 you go and ask Mrs. Maguire if you 
 won't take my word for it ? " 
 
 *' I can't believe that you are Mr. 
 Trench ! " 
 
 ^^ Being of a forgiving disposition I 
 will overlook the contempt expressed in 
 that word ^ you,' if you'll only kindly tell 
 me why I may not be allowed to be my 
 own self ? " 
 
 '-'- Because Micky Cassidy, that's our 
 old gardener, remembers Mr. Trench well 
 when he was a little boy, and it was only 
 to-day he was telling me that he must be 
 a slight, fair young man, looking very 
 English, and that's not you I " 
 . ^^ Really the emphasis you put on that 
 unfortunate pronoun makes me quite shy.
 
 28 KILCORRAN. 
 
 but anyhow I can scarcely be accused of 
 fishing for compliments if I meekly ask 
 in what way 1 am so far removed from 
 any resemblance to that enviable man, 
 Mr. Trench ?'' 
 
 ^^ You're very tall and very black," 
 says the girl with perfect gravity, but 
 with a mischievous look in the eyes again 
 — '-^ and, pardon me, but you look much 
 more like a French Imperial Cuirassier 
 than a respectable English or Irish coun- 
 try gentleman ! " and she laughs a clear, 
 ringing laugh, at the perplexed expression 
 of Neal Trench's dark face, as he stg^nds 
 twisting the ends of his well-waxed 
 moustaches a VEmjpcreur, 
 
 At that moment the girl's eyes light 
 on his cigar-case, the half of which is 
 sticking out of his breast coat-pocket,
 
 LIL. 29 
 
 and the large initials, ^^ N. T.," on it, 
 convince her that after all this is the 
 real Simon Pure. So with quaint gravity 
 she says : 
 
 ^^ I beg your pardon for not knowing 
 you before, will you forgive me ? " and a 
 small hand is held out frankly to him with 
 all the dignity of a ^ duchesse de la vieille 
 cour.' 
 
 ^^ Wont you tell me your name, now ? " 
 asks Neal. 
 
 ^' I'm Lillis Fane," is the answer. 
 
 '^ Then I'm speaking to the Miss Fane 
 who lives at the Hiver House, and whom 
 old Mrs. Maguire was telling me most 
 interesting anecdotes of until she inter- 
 rupted herself, for fear of the fairies, I 
 believe." 
 
 ^^ Hush ! " says Lillis Fane, with an
 
 30 KILCORRAN. 
 
 awe-struck look in her eyes, ^^ they might 
 hear you ; — we sj^eak of them always as 
 the * good j)eople ' or the ^ people in green ' 
 or the ^ little people ' here ; — never what 
 you said J — they don't like it ! '' 
 
 ^^ But, my dear child, you don't mean 
 to say you believe in them ! " exclaims 
 Neal Trench. 
 
 ^^ Of course I do," answers the girl ; 
 ^^ why I've seen them and heard them over 
 and over again when I've been out riding 
 late on the moor ; sometimes if it's dark, 
 they'll dance before me with tlieir lanterns 
 for miles and miles, and Micky Cassidy 
 tells me that he often sees them dancing 
 in their ring just behind our house, as he 
 comes home at night." 
 
 ^^ Micky Cassidy has probably dined, 
 and done himself well on tliose occasions.
 
 LIL. 31 
 
 But where were you going w^lien you 
 stopt to reprove me just now ? '' 
 
 ^^ Only to stroll about till it w^as time 
 to go in," answ^ers Lil Fane ; ^^ I shan't 
 go in till near eight, as w^e don't dine till 
 then, my father and I." 
 
 '^You're lucky to have some prospect 
 of dinner to go back for at all," lauglis 
 her companion, and details the list of 
 Mrs. Maguire's grievances, including the 
 ungrateful conduct of Lanty Doolan's 
 refractory piece of mutton. 
 
 *^ Would you care to come and dine 
 with us ? As you will be so uncomfortable 
 up at the Castle to-night ? " and the frank 
 grey eyes look kindly up at him. 
 
 ^^ Of course, I'd like it above all 
 things, and it's very good of you to ask 
 me, Miss Fane; but sliouldn't I disturb
 
 32 KILCORRAN. 
 
 your father perhaps ? '' and Neal hesitates 
 
 a little. 
 
 ^^ Nothing and no one disturbs my 
 father now," answers Lil, and the sunny 
 face clouds over, '' he is not quite right 
 in his mind," she adds in a low, sad 
 tone. 
 
 '-'- I know," says Neal, with a quick 
 look of sympathy, — and they both feel 
 almost like old friends as they descend 
 the hill together, chattering and laughing 
 like two children. 
 
 The old wooden bridge leading to the 
 River House is on the far side from them, 
 so they strike into the public village road 
 to get to it. As they pass near the end of 
 the little peninsula, where the fence runs 
 across it cutting it off from the high road, 
 Neal pauses and says :
 
 LIL. 33 
 
 ^^ Surely if a road had been made 
 across that boundary fence there, it would 
 have been much more convenient to get 
 to your house." 
 
 ^^ Yes, it would," assents Lil, ^^ it saves 
 a lot of time to go that way." 
 
 '^ I must talk to the agent, Malone, 
 
 about it,'' says Neal, turning off the road 
 
 and walking across the grass towards the 
 
 fence. The side of it next to him is a 
 
 mass of strong thorns, and a deep ditch 
 
 (or ^^shaugh" as it is called in Ireland) 
 
 about twelve feet wide on the far side, 
 
 make together a most formidable obstacle, 
 
 — as he thinks to himself from a hunting 
 
 point of view. As he nears it the fresh 
 
 tracks of a horse going at speed in the 
 
 same direction catch his eye, and with an 
 
 exclamation of incredulity he looks over 
 VOL. I. 3
 
 34 KILCORRAN. 
 
 the fence, and sees on the other side of 
 the wide ditch the unmistakeable marks 
 of where a horse had slid a little as it 
 landed after jumj)ing the fence. 
 
 '^ By the powers ! some horse has 
 actually been over here this morning ! " 
 exclaims Neal in astonishment. 
 
 ^* Yes, it was ^Kittane/" says Lil, 
 nodding gravely. 
 
 *' Who's that? " inquires he. 
 
 *^ My mare,'' answers the girl, with a 
 quick look of pride. 
 
 '^ Did you ride her over it ? " again 
 asks Neal, as the steady, ^ collected ' 
 look of the tracks show plainly that it 
 nad not been a riderless horse that had 
 jumped it. 
 
 ^^ Of course ; no one else ever rides 
 her. But I don't often let her go home
 
 LIL, 35 
 
 that way, only when I'm in a real very 
 great hurry, because Pat Con oily (the 
 boy that takes care of her) says she might 
 break her back there some day, the banks 
 of the shaugh are so steep." 
 
 *^ And break your neck too, it strikes 
 me very forcibly. Miss Lil ! — though she 
 certainly seems to have jumped it clean 
 enough this time." 
 
 ^^ You don't know ^ Kittane,' " pursues 
 Lil, with a proud look of love and almost 
 faith in her eyes; ^^she begins to dance 
 and shake her head as soon as she gets 
 near this bit of the road even, and if I 
 turn her off it towards this fence she goes 
 just mad she's so pleased, and tears down 
 at it and jumps it as if it were only a little 
 grip. There's nothing ^ Kittane ' can't 
 get over," adds the girl confidently.
 
 36 KILCORRAN. 
 
 ^'I suj)pose you're fond of her?" in- 
 quires Neal. 
 
 ^^ Fond of ^ Kittane ' do you ask ? See 
 here, Mr. Trench ; for four years I've been 
 on her back every day of my life, and 
 she's the only friend and conijDanion I 
 have, and she's just brother and sister and 
 all to me ! She's never done me a bad 
 turn, and she's as honest as the day, — 
 and as long as I live, nothing and no 
 one will be to me what that mare is ! " 
 and the childish voice almost trembles 
 from intensity of feeling, and Lil's eyes 
 soften as, certes ! the thought of no 
 other living thing could have softened 
 them. 
 
 ^^ Mayn't I see her?" asks her com- 
 panion, as they resume their way round 
 to the house.
 
 LIL. 37 
 
 ^^ Please not to-night, because it's get- 
 ting too dark ; and she's black, yon know, 
 so doesn't look so well unless she's in 
 the sunlight," answers Lil, considering 
 the effect to be produced by her mare's 
 appearance with as much care as any 
 manoeuvring mother would have shown 
 when introducing her daughter to a 
 coveted son-in-law. 
 
 Lights were shining in the ground- 
 floor windows of the River House, and a 
 perfectly aj)pointed dinner-table greeted 
 Neal's eyes as he was led past the 
 open dining-room door by his com- 
 panion, and was ushered into a snug 
 little morning-room, — the walls of which, 
 as well as the things lying about in 
 it, showed signs of many incongruous 
 tastes.
 
 38 KILCORRAN. 
 
 Pictures of saint-like Madonnas and 
 lovely Claude Lorraine landscapes were 
 interspersed with spirited sketches of 
 horses and dogs, and a magnificent Rem- 
 brandt hung on one side of the fire-place, 
 oddly balanced by a large crayon sketch 
 of Landseer's ' Challenge ' on the other. 
 The whole room showed symptoms of the 
 same mixture of tastes ; here lay a fishing- 
 rod, the line almost still wet from recent 
 use, there lay a most business-like work- 
 basket and large bunch of keys; — here 
 was a hunting-whip, there a vase of taste- 
 fully arranged flowers ; — at one corner of 
 the table lay a half -finished rough child's 
 petticoat, at the other a large black silk 
 fan. And the books on the shelves at 
 either side of the room were equally in- 
 congruous in class and character; Whyte
 
 LIL. 39 
 
 Melville's novels v^ere flanked by an 
 Encyclopaedia and an old Latin Missal, — 
 whereas Bacon's ^Essays' had sat itself 
 dov^n next door to the ^Idylls of the 
 King ' ; — whilst a large volume of Shake- 
 speare looked down in contempt on a 
 small volmne of Irish fairy-stories beside 
 it.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " White rose in red rose-garden 
 
 Is not so white ; 
 Snowdrops that plead for pardon 
 
 And pine for fright; 
 Because the hard East blows 
 
 Over their maiden rows, 
 Grow not as this face grows from pale to bright." 
 
 Before the Mirror.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ^^FAIRj FAIR, WITH GOLDEN HAIR." 
 
 EAL TRENCH had barely had 
 time to make his inspection of 
 the apartment, before a respect- 
 able grey-haired old butler came and offered 
 to show him to his room. He became more 
 and more astonished at the evident luxury 
 in which his little companion of the after- 
 noon lived, for from her simple way of 
 talking he had put down the River House 
 as a most ordinary cottage. When he 
 again entered the morning-room, apolo- 
 gising for his inability to dress in all
 
 44 KILCORRAN, 
 
 proper form for dinner, Lillis Fane looked 
 up and beckoned him over to wliere in 
 an arm-chair by the window sat the bent 
 form of a prematurely old man. Ap- 
 parently his physical powers were as 
 strong as ever, judging from the vigorous 
 push back he gave his chair to enable 
 himself to get a better view of the 
 stranger, but the restless vacant look in 
 his eyes, the half-open mouth, and odd, 
 uncouth mutterings as he cowered down 
 again in his chair, — all told of the mind 
 being irrevocably gone. And, in truth, a 
 terrible railway accident abroad, and the 
 long illness that followed after the shock, 
 had left poor Herbert Fane a hopeless 
 imbecile. After years had been spent in 
 trying every change of place, and phy- 
 sician, and everything that could be
 
 " FAIR, FAIR, WITH GOLDEN HAIR." 45 
 
 thought of, his only remaining relation, 
 a brother, bought the River House and 
 moved him there ; in the hope that 
 perfect quiet and the freshness of the 
 mountain air might perhaps eifect what 
 constant change of scene had failed to 
 do. 
 
 There Mr. Fane had remained ever 
 since, and now that his brother was dead, 
 and his daughter engaged to be married 
 (as well as provided for in being heiress 
 to his large fortune), no one thought of 
 moving the old man again from the place 
 he had lived in for upwards of seven 
 years, and which to him was home. 
 
 Neal Trench puts out his hand to- 
 wards the old man, and the latter takes it 
 with the puzzled look of a shy child, and 
 then mutters :
 
 46 KILCORRAN. 
 
 ^^My girl, my girl; where' s my girl?" 
 
 ^^Here, father," answers LiPs clear 
 voice, ^^I'ye just come back and brought 
 Mr. Trench in with me." 
 
 '^ Is he a doctor ? Can he tell me why 
 the trees and flowers keep whispering all 
 night so that I can't sleep for them ? " and 
 the old man peers earnestly into Neal's 
 face. 
 
 ^^ I'm afraid I can't," says the latter in 
 utter perplexity. 
 
 ^' No one can tell me anything but my 
 girl," whimpers the old man like a spoilt 
 child, — then suddenly looks up with a 
 harsh, vacant laugh and begins to call 
 '^ Jack, Jack," as loud as he can. 
 
 '^Jack's out, father," says Lil, adding 
 in low voice to Neal, that ^^ Jack " had 
 been an old terrier of her father's, and his
 
 " FAIR, FAIR, WITH GOLDEN HAIR^ 47 
 
 most inseparable companion, mitil the old 
 dog had died about three years ago. 
 
 *^ He's so often out now, and I want 
 him so ? " moans the old man, and he 
 throws himself back in liis chair and sobs 
 piteously. 
 
 ^'I think he'll come in soon, father," 
 says his daughter soothingly, wlio for 
 every evening of the last few years has 
 had to tell this pacifying falsehood. 
 
 The announcement of dinner cut the, 
 to Neal, painful interview short; and he 
 and his young hostess walked together 
 into the dining-room, wliilst the old 
 servant arranged an invalid table close to 
 Mr. Fane's chair with his dinner on it, 
 talking to the old man all the while in the 
 senseless but soothing way one does to an 
 infant.
 
 48 KILCORRAN. 
 
 While my hero and heroine take their 
 places, it will be as well to describe them. 
 
 Lillis Fane's face was a very striking 
 one, but more so from its constant change 
 of expression than its regularity of feature. 
 It was only a small pale face, with chest- 
 nut golden hair taken simply back off it 
 and twisted into a neat knot at the back 
 of the little well-shaped head, — but the 
 small face was lit up by the most wonder- 
 ful pair of blue-grey eyes that ever man 
 beheld ! Sometimes they looked frank 
 and clear and untroubled as a child's; 
 sometimes there was a passionate depth of 
 expression in them ; — one minute they 
 would be dancing with ^^ devilry" and 
 mischief, the next they would look as 
 grave and sad as those of a cloistered 
 nun. But the two strongest points in
 
 ''FAIR, FAIR, WITH GOLDEN HAIRr 49 
 
 Lillis Fane's nature sliowed themselves 
 in every ^vord and look and gesture of 
 hers : utter fearlessness, both moral and 
 physical, on the one hand, and the 
 ^' devil's sin" of pride on the other. And 
 yet small sin was there in the pride that 
 a nature like hers could feel, for a more 
 loving and a truer one could scarce have 
 been found upon earth ; — but terrible in- 
 deed would be the pain, and sorrow, and 
 anguish that could shake the resolute spirit 
 there, or teach Lil Fane's proud little head 
 to bow meekly before the chastening rod. 
 The man sitting on the other side of 
 the dinner table, was a great contrast to 
 her in outward appearance at least. Lil 
 had not inaptly described him when she 
 said he was like '^ an Imperial Cuirassier," 
 
 for his great height, and his singularly 
 VOL. I. 4
 
 50 KILCORRAN. 
 
 handsome dark face with its moustaches a 
 VEmjperciir^ went very near to realising 
 one's ideal of those men who were so 
 truly ^^aristocrats" and yet ^^bon soldats." 
 The occasional half -foreign idioms in con- 
 versation, and the graceful com-teous 
 manner, utterly free from either gaiicherie 
 or conceit, all contributed to stren^cthen 
 this impression ; but still the deep dark- 
 grey eyes were most unmistakeably Eng- 
 lish, and Neal Trench was one of those 
 men in whom the look of ^^race" so 
 strongly predominated, that had he been 
 disguised as a beggar even, no power on 
 earth could have made him look anything 
 but what he was, — a thorough gentleman. 
 In character he gave one the idea of 
 being a world-worn, world-weary man, 
 whose careless philosophy and utter dis-
 
 ''FAIR, FAIR, WITH GOLDEN HAIRr 51 
 
 belief in anything, saved him from most 
 of the troubles of this world ; but in spite 
 of strong self-command and his naturally 
 gay courteous manner, no one, seeing the 
 occasional reckless look in his deep grey 
 eyes and the way his mouth could set 
 sometimes when things went contrary to 
 his liking, could doubt but that he was a 
 man of strong and even violent passions 
 when roused, — though the way his dark 
 face could soften and change at the sound of 
 some strain of music or the kind words of 
 a friend, spoke well for the strength of 
 tenderness lying at the bottom of his 
 moan's heart. Far above most men in 
 all ordinary cleverness, the misfortune of 
 being born rich with no necessity to work, 
 had never allowed him to develop into 
 anything but a man to whom books are
 
 52 KILCORRAN. 
 
 the joy of life, not the study. And at 
 two-and-thirty no living hand had as yet 
 left its characters written across the blank 
 page of Neal Trench's heart and soul, nor 
 any influence been strong enough to rouse 
 the slumbering force of his real character. 
 
 ^^ This is a much pleasanter evening, 
 thanks to you, than I dreamed of spend- 
 ing," says Neal, and he cannot help 
 admiring the frank kindness of his self- 
 possessed little hostess, who, without 
 ceasing her gay, careless talk, still never 
 omits the smallest courtesy towards her 
 visitor. 
 
 ^' Much pleasanter for me, too," returns 
 the girl laughingly — ^'for else I should 
 only have had a book to read all dinner- 
 time by way of companion ; but I'm
 
 " FAIR, FAIR, WITH GOLDEN HAIRr 53 
 
 afraid other people might perhaps say I 
 ought to have waited to be introduced to 
 you before I asked you to dinner, oughtn't 
 I ? Only it seemed so greedy to go and 
 sit down to dinner by oneself and leave 
 you to starve." 
 
 ^^ I'm most devoutly thankful that you 
 did not stop to consider what other people 
 would think on this occasion," remarks 
 Mr. Trench, ^' for unless I had gone and 
 begged a dinner at Corraghmore I most 
 certainly should have starved. Do you 
 know the people there ? " 
 
 ^^No," says Lil, '^ I know nobody 
 about here except the sisters." 
 
 ^^ What sisters ? " 
 
 ^^Up at the convent there," replies 
 Lil, nodding her head towards the direc-
 
 54 KILCORRAN. 
 
 tion in wliich that edifice stands. ^^ They 
 have taught me entirely," she adds, 
 with a child's love of telling its own story, 
 '^ and I've never been to school or had a 
 governess." 
 
 '^ Haven't you," responds Neal vague- 
 ly, and wondering how those good souls, 
 ^^shut in by closed nunnery walls," could 
 have instilled such perfect ^^ great world" 
 manners into the merry, mischievous-look- 
 ing school-girl before him. 
 
 ^^I hope Lady Corraghmore will come 
 to church over here at Shaughane some 
 Sunday," says Lillis Fane after a pause — 
 ^^ I've never seen a really fashionable lady 
 in my life, I believe." 
 
 '^ So much the better for you," re- 
 sponds her companion, wondering again 
 in his heart as to wliich of his fashionable
 
 " FAIR, FAIR, WITH GOLDEN HAIRr 55 
 
 acquaintances would have overlooked ' les 
 convenances' out of simple kindness and 
 hospitality, as this girl had done ; and 
 even if they had overlooked them, which 
 amongst their number after having done 
 so would have treated him so simply and 
 frankly as ^ bon camarade ' ! 
 
 ^^Why?" asks Lil, her eyes opening 
 wide at this incomprehensible remark. 
 *^ I know and see so little, and they might 
 teach me so much." 
 
 ^^ There's no doubt of that," observes 
 Neal drily. " But Lady Corraghmore 
 isn't a bit an ordinary fashionable lady, if 
 by that you mean a woman who lives for 
 society alone. She's fond of the country, 
 and animals, and everything of that sort, 
 — and is one of the thoroughly best 
 women I know, and quite the kindest."
 
 66 KILCORRAN. 
 
 '^ How I should like to see her ! " says 
 Lil wistfully. ^^ But if she only will coine 
 to this little church some day instead of 
 their own chapel at Corraghmore, I shall 
 perhaps see her then." 
 
 ^^ I'll ask her to lunch some "Sunday 
 and make her come," answered Neal with 
 a laugh, — inwardly resolving to ask Lady 
 Corraghmore not only to come to lunch at 
 Kilcorran, but also to befriend the solitary 
 little girl before him with all the kindness 
 he knew her to be so well capable of. 
 After some more desultory chat they both 
 left the dining-room and returned to the 
 morning-room, where Neal, glancing casu- 
 ally at the ornaments on the table as he 
 passed, took up a little photograph frame 
 with an exclamation of surprise :
 
 " FAIR, FAIR, WITH GOLDEN HAIRr 57 
 
 ^^ Why, surely this is Lord Ernest 
 Craven^ isn't it ? " 
 
 ^^ Yes," answers his hostess, ^^ do you 
 know him ? " 
 
 '^ Only by sight ; I've come across him 
 in London once or twice ; — and you ? " 
 
 " I'm engaged to be married to him," 
 is the simple answer. 
 
 ^^Not really?" exclaims Neal in utter 
 surprise. « 
 
 ^^ Yes, really and actually ! " says Lil 
 — ^^ and I don't think it's very civil of 
 you to speak of the fact in so intensely 
 unbelieving a tone," adds the girl with a 
 merry laugh. 
 
 ^^ It isn't that, — not in the least," — 
 stammers Neal, his surprise at the intelli- 
 gence deepening every moment, as he
 
 68- KILCORRAN. 
 
 recalls the utter contrast in every way 
 between Lillis Fane and her future 
 husband. '^ Only I fancied he was so 
 entirely given up to politics and philo- 
 sophy, that the idea of his taking up 
 matrimony surprised me a good deal 
 somehow." 
 
 And as the memory of Ernest Craven's 
 thoughtful quiet face, and his intense 
 devotion to study, crosses Neal Trench's 
 mind, the incongruity of a marriage be- 
 tween him and the owner of the bright, 
 merry, childish face before him strike him 
 more and more forcibly. 
 
 '' I'll tell you how it was," says Lil, 
 confidentially. ^^ Ernest was a great deal 
 with us when he was quite a boy, and we 
 lived at Coblentz on the Rhine, where he 
 was at school, — and then years after, when
 
 '' FAIR, FAIR, WITH GOLDEN HAIRr 59 
 
 he heard how ill father was, he used to 
 often write and ask after him ; and then, a 
 year ago, when I was sixteen, he came 
 here to see father once more, — and my 
 uncle (who is dead now) came with him ; 
 — and then in a few days he asked me to 
 marry him, and uncle said it was a great 
 thing for me; and Ernest had been so 
 good and kind that I liked him more than 
 any one I had ever seen, and so I was 
 very glad to marry him." 
 
 All this was said v/ithout a tremor or 
 a blush, and there was something in the 
 eager, frank way the girl spoke her lover's 
 praises, that made the man of the world 
 listening to her mutter to himself in- 
 voluntarily : ^^ Poor child ! " 
 
 But he only held out his hand and 
 said:
 
 60 KILCORRAN. 
 
 '^ I must be going now, Miss Fane, but 
 I hope we shall meet soon. What shall 
 you do with yourself to-morrow ? " 
 
 ^^Oh! to-morrow I must be eighteen 
 miles the other side of those mountains by 
 mid-day," laughs Lil. There's a man 
 there, one of the O'Neals, that the gangers 
 came down on for stilling (making 
 whiskey you know), and I must go and 
 see how his sick wife and all the little 
 children are getting on." 
 
 ^^ Then there's no chance of my seeing 
 you to-morrow ? " asks Neal Trench, with 
 more resrret in his tone than he is aware 
 
 o 
 
 of. 
 
 ^^ Not the slightest, — but I wish 
 you good luck with your dinner," 
 says Lil with a merry smile. " Good 
 night."
 
 '' FAIR, FAIR, WITH GOLDEN hair:' .61 
 
 " Good night. And I am more grate- 
 ful tlian I can say for your kindness to me 
 as a stranger," says Neal, — and he takes 
 his way home across the two bridges and 
 down the road leading to the foot of the 
 hill and its wooded winding path leading 
 up to Kilcorran Castle, — thinking as he 
 goes of the strange little soul he had met 
 that night, whose life's history seemed 
 nearly as marvellous as could ever have 
 been that of one of the little fairies she 
 believed in with such implicit and childish 
 faith. ^
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 " For we that sing and you that love 
 Know that which man may, only we. 
 The rest live under us ; above, 
 Live the great gods in heaven, and see 
 What thmgs shall be." 
 
 Felise.
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 '' KITTANE." 
 
 FEW clays after this, Neal 
 Trench was sitting at dinner 
 at Corraghmore, whither he, 
 had gone the day after his visit to the 
 Kiver House, to stay there until such a 
 time as Mrs. Maguire might condescend to 
 exert herself a little in rendering his own 
 establishment more comfortable. A feel- 
 ing of half-shyness that he certainly could 
 scarcely have explained to himself, had as 
 yet prevented him from preferring his 
 
 request that the lonely little girl at the 
 VOL. I. 5
 
 66 KILCORRAN. 
 
 Eiver House might find a friend in his 
 genial kind-hearted hostess. Now, under 
 cover of the confusion of voices caused 
 by at least a dozen people all express- 
 ing their different ideas at one and the 
 same time, he ventured to speak of his 
 adventure on the first night of arriving 
 at Shaughane. 
 
 ; I need scarcely say to any one who 
 has ever tried the experiment of selecting 
 an apparently opportune moment at a 
 dinner-table for giving vent confidentially 
 to his or her ideas on some cherished 
 subject, — that no sooner had Mr. Trench 
 embarked upon his story, than for some 
 unaccountable reason everybody else's 
 subject of conversation suddenly dropped, 
 and a general pause resulted. Conse- 
 quently, no sooner had his anecdote come
 
 " KITTANEr 67 
 
 to an end than quite a storm of remarks 
 burst forth. 
 
 ^^Is the young lady pretty?" inquires, 
 I need not say, a woman; no less a 
 person than the Lady Bella Donner, the 
 acknowledged beauty of a London season 
 some time back, and of manifold other 
 seasons at Brighton, Homburg, and else- 
 where, since then. 
 
 ^^No," responds Mr. Trench, laconi- 
 cally. 
 
 " Can she ride, do you suppose ? " ask 
 the two Miss Breastplates in a breath ; 
 good-hearted, cheery, downright sort of 
 girls are they, and perfect mistresses 
 themselves of the accomplishment they 
 speak of. 
 
 ^^I really don't know, for I never saw 
 her," says Neal shortly.
 
 68 KILCORRAN. 
 
 '^ Come, my dear fellow, don't be so 
 devilisli mistewlous over tins little wild 
 Iwisli girl," puts in Captain Sabreur of 
 Her Majesty's Royal Body Guards Black, 
 known to his friends by the soubriquet of 
 'le Beau Sabreur,' which, to do him 
 justice, was certainly deserved, both by 
 the invariably unimpeachable nature of 
 his toilette and his own undeniable good 
 looks. ^^ If you won't tell us nnj more," 
 adds he, putting ujd an eye-glass and 
 taking a good-humouredly mischievous 
 inspection of Neal's somewhat vexed 
 countenance, ^^ I shall go and make the 
 young woman's acquaintance myself and 
 cut you out ! " 
 
 '^ The very look of you would be 
 enough for most women, wouldn't it,
 
 " KITTANEr 69 
 
 Beau ? " asks Neal Trench, smiling in 
 spite of himself, as the picture suggests 
 itself to his mind of le Beau Sabreur's 
 compliments and hanaliUs put into pos- 
 sible contrast with Lil Fane's outspoken 
 downrightness in conversation. 
 
 '^ Well, I know one thing about this 
 young lady," breaks in Sir Derrick Cor- 
 raghmore's loud hearty voice, '' that 
 every soul in the glen speaks well of her, . 
 and that there's not a cabin on the moun- 
 tain-side or even a beggar by the way that 
 doesn't know her, though we may not ; 
 so I think the sooner we make her ac- 
 quaintance perhaps the better for us." 
 
 ^^ Certainly, Derry," coincides his 
 kind-hearted wife. ^^ It must be so mis- 
 erably lonely for the poor child living
 
 70 KILCORRAN, 
 
 there all alone with that unfortunate old 
 man. I shall go and see her to-morrow 
 afternoon, and try and get her to come to 
 us sometimes for a night or two. She 
 must be painfully shy though, I fear, poor 
 girl ! " 
 
 This remark being addressed to the 
 table at large, Neal Trench does not feel 
 called upon to answer, but again he smiles 
 to himself as he remembers the bright 
 merry sang-froid of the young lady in 
 question. 
 
 Late on the next afternoon, as he is 
 walking slowly back to Kilcorran, past 
 the bridges and the River House, the 
 stroke of a horse's hoof on the road ahead 
 of him attracts his attention, and in the 
 rider he recognizes Lillis Fane. As she
 
 " KITTANEr 71 
 
 is riding straight towards him, and must 
 perforce pass by him to gain entrance to 
 the River House, he stops short and 
 awaits her coming, admiring the picture 
 as he does so. 
 
 Certainly a grander-shaped animal, or 
 one with more power in a small compass, 
 could scarcely be found than the long, 
 low, hunting-like black mare which Lil is 
 on. From her small, lean head, to the 
 very end of her square-cut, bang tail, she 
 looks a hunter all over, — and as she 
 dances and plays with her bit, and turns 
 broadside towards Neal, so that the even- 
 ing sun lights up her silky coat till it 
 shines like black satin, a more beautiful 
 animal than ^^ Kittane," take her all in all, 
 could scarce be found.
 
 72 ■ KILCORRAN. 
 
 Lillis Fane is so • near now that Mr. 
 Trench can see she looks hot and tired, as 
 if she had ridden both far and fast, — but 
 without perceiving him, he sees her turn 
 the mare's head suddenly round towards 
 the very boundary fence which had been 
 the subject of their discussion on the night 
 he had first met her. ^^ Kittane " gives 
 two or three mad plunges as the desire of 
 her wild little heart to take this most for- 
 midable short cut is unexpectedly grati- 
 fied, and then races at the fence at a most 
 frightful pace; but before reaching it, 
 though she snatches at her bridle and 
 throws her head about wildly, she yet 
 steadies herself marvellously in the last 
 two strides, as her rider humours her 
 mouth and temper with perfect confidence
 
 "KITTANE:' 73 
 
 in both herself and the mare ; and the 
 latter, taking off at the right place to an 
 inch, lands safely into the next field, with 
 her hind legs well under her and without 
 a stagger, and is cantering quietly up to 
 her stable, before Neal has had time to 
 recover his breath after the somewhat 
 startling feat just witnessed. Remember- 
 ing that he is carrying a note from Lady 
 Corraghmore to the River House in his 
 pocket, which he has promised to see 
 safely delivered, Neal walks over the 
 wooden bridge and up the drive to the 
 house, and as he arrives at the hall 
 door is met by Lil Fane herself, in a 
 neat habit of grey Irish frieze, with a 
 grey wide-awake hat of the same on 
 her head.
 
 •74 KILCORRAN. 
 
 ^^ I'm so glad you've come," said the 
 girl merrily, ^^for old Robarts, our butler 
 I mean, says that Lady Corraghmore 
 came to see me to-day, and I can't believe 
 it ! Do you think it's really true ? " 
 
 ^^ I'm quite certain it's true, and she 
 was very disappointed not to find you in, 
 and has given me a note for you," 
 answered Neal, — ^^ but first, will you 
 pardon me for asking why you risked 
 your neck just now by taking that 
 demoniacal short cut you're so fond 
 of?" 
 
 ^^ Because my father wasn't well this 
 afternoon when I went out, and I had to 
 go, for a woman who is ill of low fever 
 six miles from here had no more medicine 
 left to last over to-morrow, Sunday ; so I
 
 " KITTANEr 75 
 
 went as quick as I could there and back. 
 And being in a hurry, and ^^Kittane" so 
 fresh, I thought the short cut would just 
 suit us both," added the girl laughingly. 
 
 ^^Your father isn't really ill, is he?" 
 inquired Neal. 
 
 ^^Oh! no, and he's all right again 
 now, — but do come and sit down on the 
 lawn to rest a bit. It's only half-past 
 five, so we'll have our tea out there." 
 
 And together they walked down a 
 path cut through the shrubberies which 
 surrounded two sides of the little house, 
 and emerged on to a sunny little lawn 
 with a good-sized sycamore tree growing 
 in the middle of it, under the shade of 
 which a few basket chairs and a rustic 
 tea-table were standing.
 
 KILCORRAN. 
 
 Old HoLarts brings out the tea-tray, 
 and with it a large dish of gooseberries, 
 a plate of buttered toast, and other 
 luxuries. 
 
 *^ Don't be shocked, Mr. Trench, 
 please," said Lil, ^^but I've had nothing 
 much to eat since breakfast and I am so 
 hungry ! " and after giving him his cup of 
 tea, she suited action to word by cutting 
 off a huge slice of dry bread, and setting 
 to work on that and the dish of goose- 
 berries with a rapidity which justified her 
 assertion. 
 
 ^^ Oh ! I had forgotten Lady Corragh- 
 more's note ! " exclaims the girl suddenly. 
 '^ Do give it me ! what can it be about ? " 
 and she opens it hurriedly and runs her 
 eye over its contents.
 
 " KITTANEr 77 
 
 ^^ She's actually asked me to go and 
 stay at Corraglimore for two nights next 
 week ! " says Lil, looking up in utter 
 amazement, her glorious great eyes danc- 
 ing with excitement. 
 
 ^^ Will you go ? " asks her companion, 
 feeling very pleased to think that he has 
 been the means of procuring at least one 
 very evident pleasure for this lonely little 
 soul. 
 
 ^^Will I go, do you ask? Of course 
 I'll go, Mr. Trench ! And I'll get Father 
 Donally to lend me his car to drive me up 
 there. And she says they ^ have a few 
 friends staying,' so perhaps that '11 be 
 a big party, and any way I'm sure to see 
 some really smart ladies at last ! Oh ! 
 but I forgot, — I've got no evening dress
 
 78 KILCORRAN. 
 
 except one, a black one only, which 
 Ernest brought over for me from London 
 two years ago, after my uncle died, and 
 IVe never seen it since it came even, and 
 it may be lost by now ! " and Lil's face 
 fell like a child's, when it sees an antici- 
 pated pleasure falling to the ground. 
 
 With a hurried ^^ Do excuse me ! " the 
 girl flies into the house, from the upper 
 rooms of which Mr. Trench can hear her 
 voice calling : '' Shusy, Shusy ! " in tones 
 of the deepest excitement, which are 
 responded to by: ^^Arrah, me darlint! 
 shure I'm a comin' " — from some other 
 female voice apparently in the lower 
 regions of the little mansion. 
 
 In a very few minutes Lil appears at 
 the morning-room window, which opens
 
 •^ 
 
 "KITTANEr 79 
 
 on to the lawn, staggering under the 
 weight of a big deal box, which with 
 difficulty Neal persuades her to let him 
 carry. 
 
 ^' It's the dress," she says anxiously, 
 ^^ bring it under the shade of the tree, and 
 let's unpack and shake it out, and see if 
 it '11 do ! " 
 
 In less than a minute out comes a 
 pretty enough black net dress, and looking 
 as fresh still as if it had just arrived from 
 London. 
 
 '' It's all right, and not a bit crushed, 
 is it ? " observes Miss Fane, smoothing 
 out the great wide black satin bows which 
 are scattered artistically upon the skirt. 
 
 And Neal Trench, — whose contempt 
 for feminine vanities is great, and who,
 
 80 KILCORRAN. 
 
 like most men, can only judge of dress by 
 its result, — is perforce obliged to obey the 
 summons of a pair of anxious grey eyes, 
 and give his best attention to considering 
 the momentous question ^'whether one 
 ought to wear something in one's hair or 
 not!" 
 
 ^' Did those other ladies at Corragh- 
 more put flowers on their heads ? " asks 
 Lil reflectively. 
 
 ^^I think they did," answers Neal, and 
 is very near adding ^^ and something else 
 on their cheeks besides." 
 
 ^^ Then I must too, of course," observes 
 Lil conclusively. '^But what? — that's the 
 question! For we've got nothing but 
 orange lilies in the garden, and my 
 politics wouldn't let me wear those for
 
 ''KITTANEP 81 
 
 anything, and I've got no artificial things 
 in my possession ! " 
 
 ^'No, I shouldn't think you had," says 
 Neal Trench. ^^ For goodness' sake don't 
 go covering your head with artificial 
 flower-gardens, for I'm sure they wouldn't 
 suit you. Wouldn't heather or something 
 like that do?" . 
 
 ^' The very thing of course ! " cries Lil 
 in delight, ''but it ntuSt'be white heather^ 
 if I can only manage to get it." 
 
 ^'I'U undertake to get it. Miss Fane, 
 if you'll entrust me with the commission, 
 for I come across lots of it every day out 
 shooting. Let's see, this is Saturday — 
 what day do you go to Corraghmore ? " 
 
 ''I'm asked to go on Tuesday and 
 stay till Thursday." 
 
 VOL. I. 6
 
 82 KILCORRAN. 
 
 '^Well, then, on Tuesday afternoon 
 early I'll bring you the heather." 
 
 "But won't you be at Corraghmore 
 too?" asks Lil with a face of deep 
 dismay. 
 
 "Well, Lady Corraghmore asked me 
 to go there, but I'd half arranged to go 
 over to England on business next week, 
 so I declined." 
 
 " Oh ! I am so disappointed ! " says Lil 
 with all a child's frankness, — "I sha'n't 
 know any one there at all now, and I did 
 so look forward to your telling me all 
 about the people and everything. Must 
 you really go to England?" and almost 
 tears of vexation stand in the clear grey 
 eyes. 
 
 Verily, not even the marriageable
 
 ''KITTANEJ' 83 
 
 daughters of Belgravia had ever evinced 
 so decided a preference for Neal Trench's 
 society as this ! and yet, man of the world 
 as he is, he can read the girl's face like a 
 book, and can see that no shadow of any 
 feeling but deep friendliness crosses it. 
 
 ^^I think I'll put off my journey, and 
 ask Lady Corraghmore to let me change 
 my mind and go there after all," he says 
 quietly, and is rewarded by seeing the 
 way the little face brightens, and hear- 
 ing the joyous exclamation: ^^Will you 
 really ? that is good of you, Mr. Trench ! " 
 
 ^^ The gain will be on my side, on the 
 contrary. And now good-bye, for I must 
 be going. By the way, most of the 
 Corraghmore party come to church here 
 to-morrow, and to lunch with me after-
 
 84 KILCORRAN, 
 
 wards, as they wish to go up to the 
 Convent in the afternoon to hear the 
 service there. They say the singing is 
 glorious, and that they have a solo voice 
 really worth hearing." 
 
 ^' That's mine," says Lil, placidly. 
 '^ I mean, I sing the solos generally." 
 
 '' You do? But you're not a nun, are 
 you ? " laughs Neal Trench. 
 
 ^^No, but they've educated me en- 
 tirely, the Sisters have, though of course 
 I'm a Protestant. But I go there a great 
 deal, and they always let me sit behind 
 the big dark curtain in the chapel with 
 the rest of their choir; and lately, since 
 Sister Magdalene has taught me to sing, 
 they generally let me sing the solos in the 
 afternoon on Sundays."
 
 " KITTANE." 85 
 
 '^ Then I shall certainly go with the 
 rest of the party to-morrow afternoon to 
 hear you, Miss Fane," and with a lift 
 of his hat Neal Trench disappears from 
 view, and Miss Fane turns her mind 
 exclusively towards her toilette and the 
 arrangements necessary to render it suit- 
 able for her forthcoming dissipation. 
 
 In this respect, though, she was much 
 better off than might have been supposed, 
 for her future husband, — with a solicitude 
 for his bride which was almost touching 
 in a man so wrapt in studies of science 
 and philosophy as was dreamy, gentle 
 Ernest Craven, — always insisted on LiPs 
 dresses, habits, etc., being selected by 
 one of his own sisters, who was well 
 qualified to undertake such a charge.
 
 •86 KILCORRAN. 
 
 And as there was no strict economy 
 necessary in managing anything con- 
 nected with the Fane exchequer, few girls 
 could really have been better dressed than 
 Lillis Fane, — only that both she and her 
 future sister-in-law had good taste enough 
 to know that simple things, thoroughly 
 well made, were the most suitable for 
 a quiet country life such as she led.
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 "—but thou, 
 If thou shouldst never see my face again, 
 Pray for my soul . More things are' wrought by prayer 
 Than this world dreams of." 
 
 MoRTE D' Arthur.
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 KYRIE, ELEISON. 
 
 HE Sunday morning broke clear 
 and fine, and Lil Fane in her 
 white dress and neat little 
 straw bonnet trimmed with Marguerites, 
 arrived at the church almost as soon as 
 the old clerk himself, and took her usual 
 place in the old-fashioned gallery up- 
 stairs, the occupants of which, though 
 they looked straight down on to the pews 
 below, were themselves almost hidden by 
 an ornamental piece of carved wood-work 
 running all round it.
 
 90 KILCORRAN, 
 
 ^' She has said her little prayer, read 
 most of the monuments put up in the 
 church, upset her prayer-book with a 
 crash twice, and yawned an innumerable 
 number of times, before the church clock 
 strikes twelve (the customary time of 
 service in the North of Ireland), and the 
 clergyman emerges from the vestry and 
 mounts into the reading-desk. Almost 
 simultaneously is heard the rustle of silk 
 dresses coming down the aisle, and the 
 Corraghmore party file into their large 
 empty pew facing the gallery above, and 
 take their places therein. 
 
 Neal Trench is with them, and his is 
 the only face which Lil recognises, of 
 course; though with her usual quickness 
 of instinct she easily identifies her future 
 host and hostess by their look, and age,
 
 KYRIE, ELEISON. 91 
 
 and their small courtesies to evident 
 guests. Sir Derrick Corraghmore's broad 
 cheery face, which even the solemnity of 
 his surroundings can scarce make to look 
 grave and severe, takes her fancy at once ; 
 but the girPs heart warms most of all to 
 the kindly, motherly face of the matronly 
 woman of forty beside him, and whom she 
 rightly sets down in her mind as being 
 his wife. The Misses Breastplate are not 
 conspicuous enough to attract her atten- 
 tion long, but the beauty of the lady 
 sitting between them and Neal Trench 
 draws her attention at once. Lil is too 
 innocent of toilette mysteries to dream of 
 that delicate complexion being assisted in 
 any way by art, nor does it dawn upon 
 her for an instant that Lady Bella 
 Donner's artistically careless chignon of
 
 92 KILCORRAN, 
 
 golden-flaxen hair has ever grown on 
 other heads before it adorned hers. The 
 beautiful saint-like look with which the 
 Lady Bella poses for being devotional, is 
 also received with the same undoubting 
 faith; — '^like one of the lovely heads of 
 saints on the convent windows," thinks 
 Lil to herself, in deepest admiration. 
 
 The service commences, and Lillis 
 Fane tries her best to keep her mind from 
 wandering to the occupants of the pew 
 below, and to think of all she should think 
 of and not of what she should not ; but 
 when the sermon commences her eyes 
 involuntarily wander back to them again, 
 and her inspection continues as attentive 
 as before. ^'Beau" Sabreur is there in 
 faultless attire, — as are also two or three 
 other men, — but Lil's eyes pass them over
 
 KYRIE, E LEI SON. 93 
 
 one by one, and rest finally on Neal 
 Trench, who is leaning his head against 
 the back of the pew with something very 
 like a scowl on his handsome face, which 
 only leaves it when he leans forward 
 every now and then 'carefully to inspect 
 the entire church and the occupants 
 thereof. 
 
 Something has vexed him, thinks Lil 
 to herself, as the scowl settles down 
 deeper than before after his last survey of 
 the edifice and the congregation within its 
 walls. Not for one instant does she 
 dream that it is because of his failure to 
 identify her own bright little face in the 
 crowd that Neal Trench's has assumed so 
 black a look. Nor has he himself the 
 slightest idea how singularly disappointed 
 he really is in not seeing the small, pale.
 
 94 KILCORRAN. 
 
 expressive face he has been picturing to 
 himself in its Sunday bonnet ; and he 
 gives quite a start when, as every one 
 stands up at the close of the service, he 
 suddenly recognises it up in the gallery 
 o]3posite to him, though nothing but the 
 said little face and its straw bonnet 
 trimmed with daisies are visible above the 
 dark wood- work of the gallery. 
 
 It is with unusual impatience that 
 he waits for the moment when Lady 
 Corraghmore rises from her knees, (his 
 own devotions having been most singu- 
 larly short !) and begins to make a move 
 towards the door, — but by the time all 
 the ladies' parasols and prayer-books have 
 been collected, and the whole party begin 
 to start on their walk to Kilcorran, where 
 they are to lunch, nothing is visible of
 
 KYRIE, ELEISON. 95 
 
 Lil except a white figure scudding along 
 the path leading from the church to the 
 River House, at a pace which speaks 
 volumes for her activity and impervious- 
 ness to the rays of an August sun. 
 
 However, his attention is so taken up 
 by the frequent calls made on it from 
 Lady Bella, as well as answering Lady 
 Corraghmore's questions concerning his 
 intention whether or no to rebuild Kil- 
 corran, that Lil and his small disappoint- 
 ment of the morning are both speedily 
 forgotten. 
 
 The grand old hall, hung round with 
 antlers and horns of every description, 
 and its cool stone floor covered here and 
 there with a strip of cocoa-nut matting or 
 Persian rugs, was gloriously cool and 
 refreshing after the up-hill toil to get to
 
 96 KILCORRAN. 
 
 it. And Mrs. Maguire had risen equal to 
 the occasion also, and had provided an ex- 
 cellent lunch for what she was pleased to 
 term ^^ the quality." So ^^ all went merry 
 as a marriage-bell," and the unusual sound 
 of women's voices, mingled with Sir Der- 
 rick's loud hearty laugh, made the old 
 walls echo again. 
 
 An adjournment to the terrace outside 
 took place after lunch, and a pleasanter 
 spot in which to spend a hot afternoon 
 could scarce be found. The sun, which 
 the high walls entirely prevented from 
 reaching the terrace, lit up the opposite 
 hill and the valley below, shining like 
 flames of fire on the great tall windows of 
 the distant convent of Sacr^ Coeur. 
 
 While Neal Trench is quietly smoking 
 cigarette after cigarette, and doing his
 
 KYRIE, E LEI SON. 97 
 
 best to entertain his guests, male and 
 female, liis eyes unconsciously keep a 
 steady watch on the Eiver House below, 
 and on the path leading across the valley 
 and up the hill opposite to him. 
 
 At last his patience is rewarded, for a 
 little white figure emerges from the River 
 House, and takes its way across the river 
 and up the little road leading to the 
 convent. 
 
 For the first time since he has known 
 that gallant officer. Beau Sabreur seems to 
 him to be a really intelligent man, when 
 the latter, after many yawns and feeling 
 a total inability to smoke any more of his 
 biggest and blackest cigars, lazily proposes 
 '^stwolling up to the Convent to hear the 
 singing, as they had agweed to do in the 
 morning." 
 
 VOL. I. 7
 
 98 KILCORRAN. 
 
 The proiDOsal was accepted by all ; 
 and after a cool descent by the path 
 through the wood, a hotter walk across 
 the valley, and a broiling toil up the 
 hill, the whole party were safely landed 
 at the Convent, and easily found places in 
 the large chapel attached to it, which 
 was nearly filled by the inhabitants of 
 Shaughane village and many others who 
 had come over the mountains from far. 
 
 The service of the Benediction com- 
 mences, but Neal's attention wanders to 
 everything else but what he is hearing, 
 and especially to a great dark curtain 
 behind the carved oak screen cutting off 
 one side-aisle of the chapel from the rest, 
 and which entirely hides the grand deep- 
 toned organ and the sweet-voiced choir of 
 nuns behind it.
 
 KYRIE, ELEISON. 99 
 
 As the first notes of the Litany of the 
 Holy Virgin re-echo through the building, 
 a beautiful, high, woman's voice makes 
 itself heard leading the choir. A glori- 
 ous voice, in truth ! Now sweet and low 
 like a murmuring stream, — then loud, tri- 
 umphant, and joyous, as one might fancy 
 would sound a strain from the saved in 
 Heaven, — then sad and wailing, as might 
 sound the cries of the souls that are lost. 
 
 " Kyrie, eleison; 
 Christe, eleison." 
 
 The sad pathos of the cry for mercy 
 strikes home to Neal's very heart ; and a 
 feeling of sadness, such as comes over 
 most of us when listening to beautiful 
 Church-music, steals over him. The years 
 wasted, the days ill-spent, and the long 
 catalogue of sins, greater or less, which
 
 100 KILCORRAN. 
 
 the recording Angel notes down against 
 us above, — these all seem to be conjured 
 up before him by that sad, pathetic voice. 
 
 " Stella matutina, 
 ,* Ora pro nobis." 
 
 Star of the morning ! the words seem 
 strangely applicable to the bright, pure- 
 hearted singer; and he wonders involun- 
 tarily whether Tier prayers for any lost 
 soul might be of avail to save it ! And as 
 the ^^ Agnus Dei '' rings out sweet and 
 clear, — amongst all the devout, good 
 Catholics listening to its cry for pardon, 
 there was perhaps not one whose heart 
 was so unconsciously touched by the pure 
 young voice, crying ^^ miserere Domine," 
 as was that of wild, reckless, world-worn 
 Neal Trench.
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 " Each thought as it forms and rises, 
 
 Is full of a solemn awe ; 
 Wildly it breaks and scatters 
 
 The germs of a thousand more. 
 Onward, and ever onward, 
 
 The old thoughts lead to new, 
 Waking and fading together, 
 
 The false lights and the true." 
 
 Roots.
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 CHE SARA, SARA. 
 
 UESDAY lias arrived, and Lil is 
 in a fever of excitement over her 
 approaching visit. The priest's 
 car is to come for her at six o'clock, and 
 cannot possibly be had earlier, as the 
 Eev. Father Donally had been unexpect- 
 edly called upon to administer extreme 
 unction to one '^ sick unto death " some 
 miles away. 
 
 The morning had been spent in taking 
 a ride on '^ Kittane," during which that 
 intelligent quadruped had conducted her-
 
 104 KILCORRAN. 
 
 self with so much decorum, that, though 
 the heat of the day might have had 
 something to do with it, her adoring 
 mistress wouldn't believe but what she 
 was cast down at the prospect of their 
 first separation. 
 
 By three o'clock everything had been 
 looked to and arranged, as regarded the 
 management of the small household for 
 the next two days; and many were the 
 orders given to ensure against any chance 
 of the poor old lunatic missing his little 
 daughter's society. Even two loaves of 
 ^^ white " bread and half a stone of oat- 
 meal had been carefully packed up for 
 Widow Murphy and her large and mixed 
 family of pigs and children, prot(^g^s of 
 Lil's, — nor had a series of rags for Corne- 
 lius O'Brien's bad leg, and some snuff to
 
 CHE SARA, SARA. 105 
 
 soothe old Biddy Doolan's domestic in- 
 felicity, been forgotten. And now Lillis 
 had sat herself down under the big syca- 
 more tree on the lawn, to await the arrival 
 of Neal Trench and his promised white 
 heather with what patience she might. 
 
 At last a man's step is heard on the 
 turf beside her, and Lil starts up with a 
 pleased exclamation at sight of her ex- 
 pected visitor, carrying a large bunch of 
 white heather. 
 
 ^^ Oh ! I'm so glad you've come; and 
 thank you so very much for not forgetting 
 my heather either ! " 
 
 " Did you think I was in the least 
 likely to do so ? " inquires Neal ; but an 
 odd and novel feeling of shyness prevents 
 him from adding the interesting fact that 
 it liad taken him more than three hours to
 
 106 KILCORRAN. 
 
 find the said white heather, and to gratify 
 Miss Fane's wish. 
 
 ^'No, I didn't think you would," says 
 Lil, placing the heather in a vase full of 
 water, which she had carefully prepared 
 for its reception till it should be time to 
 start. ^^I can always tell when people 
 forget easily." 
 
 ^^Do you apply that to the great 
 things of life as well as to the lesser ? I 
 mean, do you think you could judge 
 whether a man would forget the places he 
 likes or the people he has cared for, easily 
 or not ? " 
 
 ^^Yes, of course," says Lil, nodding 
 her head. '-'- Couldn't you ? " 
 
 ^^ I can't say I ever tried the experi- 
 ment that I know of," answers Neal,
 
 CHE SARA, SARA. 107 
 
 '^ for I'm afraid I don't believe in such a 
 thing as remembrance." 
 
 ^^Do yon mean really?''^ and the grey 
 eyes look nnwontedly grave as the ques- 
 tion is asked. 
 
 " I mean that I think no men or 
 women remember each other after a cer- 
 tain time. All the old-fashioned stories of 
 faithfulness or unfaithfulness were simply 
 nothing but a question of circumstances 
 only. If life were smooth, then they 
 remembered each other (because one can 
 scarcely forget what is constantly before 
 one's eyes), — if it were not, then they 
 t7ied to remember each other all the 
 same; but you may depend upon it that 
 ninety-nine out of a hundred very soon 
 forgot ! "
 
 lOa KILCORRAN. 
 
 '^I don't think so," answers Lil, '^ and 
 if I never saw him again I should be 
 equally certain never to forget Ernest, 
 he has been so very, very kind to me." 
 
 Again the tone of honest gratitude 
 alone with which the girl speaks of her 
 future husband jars painfully on Neal's 
 ears; and he thinks in his heart how 
 little he would care, under like circum- 
 stances, to have his own name mentioned 
 with the careless ease Lord Ernest 
 Craven's betrothed evinces. But, ^^ one 
 can't give a young woman a heart who 
 hasn't got one ! " (thinks the man of the 
 world to himself), ^^ and after all, what 
 does it concern me, I wonder ? It might 
 be a bore if I were Lord Ernest himself 
 certainly, but being myself^ and this little
 
 CHE SARA, SARA. 109 
 
 girl's friend only, it cannot possibly 
 matter to me ! " 
 
 And Neal Trench turns a deaf ear 
 resolutely to the warning voice that 
 whispers: Then why are you vexed be- 
 cause the child is not different to what she 
 is ? If she satisfy the kind good heart of 
 the man she is to marry, what matter if 
 the soul within her lie dormant to all 
 time ? Keep you to the bonnie bride you 
 have chosen, and let Lillis Fane and her 
 soul be ! 
 
 After a moment or two of silence Neal 
 says abruptly : 
 
 ^^ Don't take my views of life and 
 ideas on men and women in general to 
 be worth a moment's thought. Miss Fane, 
 for I'll allow that I'm a heretic in every- 
 thing."
 
 110 KILCORRAN. 
 
 ^*But why should you be?" asks the 
 girl. 
 
 ^^ Because IVe never had cause to see 
 there were many things or people to 
 believe in, I suppose. Of course, I don't 
 mean but what I have got many kind 
 friends, — more of them and kinder than I 
 deserve ; but that isn't enough, I fancy, to 
 teach one the real old feeling of faith, 
 such as one reads of, whether in God or 
 man." 
 
 ^^ I don't know; but I think that you 
 will learn it yet, Mr. Trench." 
 
 ^^ Shall I ? when do you imagine I 
 shall own to a perfect belief in any one or 
 anything ? " 
 
 '' I can't say when you'll oivn to it, but 
 I know at least once when you will feel 
 it ; and that is when you some day marry,
 
 CHE SARA, SARA. Ill 
 
 and learn to care for one person in the 
 world beyond all else." 
 
 Neal Trench answers dreamily : 
 ^' So you think that one always feels 
 such perfect love and faith in the jnan or 
 woman one is about to marry, that the 
 idolatry of the olden times was nothing to 
 it; and that come what might, neither 
 joy nor sorrow, nor pleasure nor pain, 
 could shake one's trust where the very li:^ 
 of one's heart were placed ? " 
 
 A look of almost wonder crosses Lil's 
 face, and she listens eagerly, like one to 
 whom a strange new strain of music is 
 being played; and gives a half -fearful 
 glance at Neal's dark, handsome face as 
 he finishes his speech. But it quickly 
 passes, and the girl is her own bright self 
 once more, as she laughingly begs Mr.
 
 112 KILCORRAN. 
 
 Trench to tell her all about the evenings 
 at Corraghmore, and the guests there: — 
 ^Hhat I may know which I shall like of 
 them," she adds. 
 
 '' There's a man called Sabreur, in 
 the Blacks, staying there, that you'll be 
 sure to like, Miss Fane ; at least all ladies 
 do, I'm told." 
 
 ^' Do they say so, or does he?" 
 
 '' Well both, I rather think ; but he's a 
 good fellow enough, I imagine, and his 
 good looks are quite sufficient to excuse 
 any feminine weaknesses on his score." 
 
 ^^Yes, I shall like him for certain," 
 says Lil decidedly. ^^ Now tell me about 
 that lady who was in church last 
 Sunday, with a beautiful good face, like 
 a saint's."
 
 CHE SARA, SARA. 113 
 
 '^ Well, I hardly know how to describe 
 A^r," answers Neal Trench; '^but I don't 
 think she is quite as much above the 
 wickednesses of the world as she can look 
 on occasions." 
 
 ^^Is she really wicked ?^^ inquires Lil, 
 in a confidential but somewhat awe-struck 
 tone. 
 
 '^Good Heavens, no!" hastily ex- 
 claims her companion, rather taken aback 
 at this literal rendering of his remark. 
 '^ Only, I mean, she would like you to 
 think she is saintly to a degree on a 
 Sunday morning, and certainly puts on the 
 required aspect to perfection. But when 
 one knows she has only selected it because 
 it goes well with a mediaeval sort of 
 bonnet, just as she puts on Cleopatra 
 
 VOL. I. 8
 
 114 KILCORRAN. 
 
 airs when she wears a certain gorgeous 
 golden dress of hers, or plays the ingenue 
 when she's clad in white muslin, — it 
 rather loses its effect upon one, you see, 
 Miss Fane." 
 
 '^Please, would you call me Lil in- 
 stead of Miss Fane ? I feel more at home 
 with it?" 
 
 ^^ My dear child, wouldn't it shock our 
 neighbours, possibly ? else it would be the 
 greatest of pleasures to myself," answers 
 Neal, divided between a strong wish to 
 preserve his young companion's name 
 from all comments, and a still stronger 
 one to meet the frank friendliness shown 
 him very much more than half way. 
 
 ^^Well, do what you like best," says 
 the girl indifferently, and Neal feels a
 
 CHE SARA, SARA. 115 
 
 little sore in his heart that she cannot see 
 he is Tiot doing what he likes best, for her 
 sake. I 
 
 '' I'll call you Lil any time except 
 when before others, if I may ? " suggests 
 Neal Trench. 
 
 " But that's humbugging, isn't it ? No, 
 you shall say always ' Lil ' or not at all, 
 which you choose." 
 
 ^^ Always ^Lil' I choose unhesitating- 
 ly, of course," says Neal, and the little 
 name seems to come quite familiarly to 
 his lips. 
 
 '^ Well, Lil," he continues, '^ what 
 songs are you going to sing to us to- 
 night ? Don't make my heart ache as you 
 did last Sunday though, little one ; for I 
 couldn't shake off the strong fit of the
 
 116 KILCORRAN. 
 
 blue devils which accompanied me back 
 from that Convent service, all the evening 
 after ? " 
 
 '^ I've never had the 'blue devils,'" 
 laughs Lil, '^ what do they feel like ?" 
 
 '^ They mean, that every sin you've 
 ever committed in your life wakes up and 
 stares you in the face, — and everything 
 you've flattered yourself is done, has been 
 only left undone after all, — and that life 
 altogether looks very black ; and do what 
 you will, there is scarce a chink through 
 which yon can see light for the future ! 
 May you never know what they are like, 
 little woman, and that's the best wish I 
 can wish you ? " 
 
 '^ Sister Magdalen says that I shall 
 always be happy until I have learnt to 
 know the world," observer Lil.
 
 CHE SARA, SARA. 117 
 
 " Has Sister Magdalen learnt to know 
 it herself then ? " asks Neal. 
 
 ^^ Oh ! yes, she knows it well^'^ assures 
 Lil. ^^ She was a singer once, and then 
 she was very gay and happy ; but she had 
 some great trouble afterwards, she told me 
 one day; and then she fell ill, and they 
 nursed her badly where she was, and her 
 voice went ; and when some of her friends 
 found her out at last she was almost 
 dying. She's very kind to me, because 
 I'm about the same age as some child 
 would have been which she knew once 
 and was fond of, had it lived." 
 
 ^' Poor thing, it's a sad story, hers ! " 
 says Neal, thinking in his own heart that 
 it was not difficult to read it accurately 
 enough — this story of a woman who ^^ had 
 learnt to know the world ? " •
 
 118 KILCORRAN. 
 
 '^ But, Lil, I want you to call me by 
 my name too, and not say Mr. Trench ; 
 will you ? " remarks Neal, as a bright 
 thought strikes him that if he can only 
 take up the position of old friends, there 
 is less likely to be so much chaff levelled 
 at the devoted head of this outspoken 
 young lady, not to say his own. 
 
 ^^ Of course; I meant to do that," 
 observes Lil with placidity. 
 
 ' ^ And now I must be off, for I am 
 going to walk to Corraghmore, and shall 
 only just be in time to dress for dinner." 
 
 ^' Oh ! dear me, I fear I shall be late," 
 exclaims Lil. 
 
 '' No fear of that, for they don't dine 
 till eight ; and I'll explain all about what 
 has detained you, to Lady Corraghmore.
 
 CHE SARA, SARA. 119 
 
 She's the kindest woman in the world, so 
 you'll receive absolution for all your sins. 
 Good-bye till this evening, then." 
 
 And Neal Trench takes his departure, 
 leaving Lil a prey to anxious fears as to 
 the coining or not coming of the Reverend 
 Father Donally's triumphal car. 
 
 After her patience was almost ex- 
 hausted, the rattle of wheels announced 
 its arrival finally; and in less than five 
 minutes the solemn visaged old coachman 
 had turned his equally solemn counten- 
 anced old horse round again, and was 
 leisurely trotting along the road to Cor- 
 raghmore, bearing the extra burthen of 
 Miss Fane and her modest black box. 
 
 Safely did she arrive at the big hall 
 door, and anxiously did she take a look
 
 120 KILCORRAN. 
 
 at the hall clock, after one affable func- 
 tionary in black, and two condescending 
 individuals in powder and plush, had 
 arrived to let her in and escort her to 
 her room. 
 
 ^' Her Ladyship's dressing, and would 
 Miss Fane kindly excuse her coming 
 down," explained the ^^ gentleman's 
 gentleman " pompously, — '^ and dinner 
 was at eight, but her Ladyship begged 
 that Miss Fane would not hurry herself 
 at all ; and could her Ladyship's maid be 
 of any use ? " 
 
 ^^ No, thank you," answered Lil, and 
 not daring to so much as glance once even 
 at the beautiful chintzes and pictures 
 ornamenting her room, she tore out the 
 much discussed black net dress, and all
 
 CHE SARA, SARA. 121 
 
 the corresponding etceteras pertaining to 
 a young lady's evening toilette, and pre- 
 pared to dress in hot haste for her first 
 appearance in polite society. The white 
 heather proved somewhat unbending and 
 refractory in its nature, but was at last 
 induced to remain at the precise angle 
 on the chestnut-golden hair that was be- 
 coming to its owner; and with a final 
 hasty collection of fan and gloves, Lil 
 Fane prepares to descend to the draw- 
 ing-room, clasping on her sole ornament, 
 a collar of pearls, tight round the neck 
 as she goes. 
 
 Brave as was Lil's heart, for one in- 
 stant it nearly failed her, as a chorus of 
 voices and laughter resounded from a half- 
 open door facing the staircase ; but it was
 
 122 KILCORRAN, 
 
 too late to retract, and the pompous func- 
 tionary in black advanced and threw 
 wide open the door, announcing '' Miss 
 Fane," in tones that made her own 
 name sound scarcely recognisable to Lil 
 herself. 
 
 ^SSHSWyS
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 " Glad, but not flushed with gladness, 
 Since joys go by ; 
 Sad, but not bent with sadness, 
 Since sorrows die." 
 
 Before the Mirror.
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 f lJp.VJ 
 
 "fair in the feaeless old fashion." 
 
 DEAD silence follows the an- 
 nouncement of the new visitor, 
 and every one glances curiously 
 round to take a look at the little "wild 
 Irish girl." A slight figure walks quietly 
 and unabashed into the great room, — 
 dressed in black, with only a spray of 
 white heather in her golden hair, and no 
 ornament but the broad pearl collar round 
 her neck. The little head is thrown 
 dauntlessly back, and not a trace of 
 shyness is in the great grey eyes that
 
 126 KILCORRAN. 
 
 shine like stars, nor in the small, pale, 
 thoroughbred face, with its indescribable 
 expression of frank fearlessness. 
 
 Low murmurs of surprise greet the 
 girl's entrance; and Lady Corraghmore, 
 stopping half way in utter bewilderment 
 as she was kindly coming forward to 
 encourage and protect her new 'protege^ 
 puts out a hand with a polite and stereo- 
 typed expression of welcome to the digni- 
 fied little lady coming forward to meet 
 her. But the bright frank smile which 
 breaks over Lil's face, as she recognizes 
 her hostess in the well-remembered kindly 
 face, seen once before in church, takes 
 Lady Corraghmore's heart by storm ; and 
 she kisses the little pale face of the girl 
 with most friendly warmth, and keeping 
 one hand on her shoulder, introduces her
 
 " FEAR IN THE FEARLESS OLD FASHION!' 127 
 
 to those of her friends sitting nearest to 
 them. 
 
 Lil bows with the stately gravity of 
 an old ^^ marquise de I'ancien regime," as 
 one new acquaintance after the other is 
 presented to her; and Neal Trench, 
 leaning against a window and watching 
 her from afar off, can scarcely credit her 
 to be the merry little school-girl who had 
 chattered so gaily to him that very after- 
 noon on the lawn of the Eiver House. 
 A half-sore feeling takes possession of 
 him as he sees the girl apparently so 
 taken up with the new faces before her, 
 as to utterly forget to look for that of her 
 older friend, and he mutters an impa- 
 tient — ^^ They'll turn the child's head 
 soon ! " to himself, as some of Beau 
 Sabreur's best-turned compliments, ad-
 
 128 KILCORRAN. 
 
 dressed to the unconscious Lil, fall on 
 his ear. 
 
 But as he watches her, her look sudden- 
 ly crosses his, and she half rises out of her 
 chair in the eager quick way of old, and a 
 light comes into her eyes such as all Beau 
 Sabreur's flatteries have not been able to 
 call there; and though the next instant 
 she sinks back in her chair again, in 
 evident remembrance of the convention- 
 alities, Neal Trench's heart beats just 
 a shade faster as the memory of that 
 bright look on her face at sight of him 
 passes again and again before his mind. 
 
 Dinner is announced, and Lil Fane, 
 under the escort of Capt. Sabreur, finds 
 herself seated at the middle of the table, 
 exactly opposite to Neal Trench, — who, 
 though having been given Miss Lottie
 
 " FAIR IN THE FEARLESS OLD FASHIONS 129 
 
 Breastplate to take in to dinner, is for- 
 tunate enough to have the beautiful Lady 
 Bella for neighbour on the other side. 
 
 Somehow even the process of making 
 pretty speeches to a very pretty woman 
 appears wearisome to Neal to-night, and 
 more than once he finds his attention 
 wandering from the Lady Bella's care- 
 fully calculated answers to speeches which 
 might mean nothing and might meaij 
 anything^ to the conversation kept up 
 unceasingly on the opposite side of the 
 table by the couple sitting vis-a-vis to 
 him. 
 
 Vainly does Beau Sabreur ^^ waste his 
 sweetness on the desert air," in trying to 
 expend telling compliments on any one so 
 frank, and free, and unappreciative as 
 Lillis Fane. He has suggested that ^^her 
 
 VOL. I. 9
 
 130 KILCORRAN, 
 
 face is one not easily to be forgotten," 
 — has implied that ^ ^ her eyes are like 
 nothing earthly," (he got so confused in 
 his metaphor that the latter was strictly 
 true !) — and has at last exclaimed in all 
 sober earnestness, that ^^slie is unlike 
 any one else he has ever seen ! "-^as one 
 flattery after the other is only received 
 by a gay ringing laugh, or a stare of 
 honest surprise from the grey eyes which 
 
 at that moment, if they have nothing else 
 earthly about them, have at least the 
 discomposingly merry look of a mis- 
 chievous child. 
 
 Beau Sabreur becomes gradually con- 
 scious of the fact, that not only NeaPs 
 attention, but that of half the table be- 
 sides, is being devoted to watching how 
 he succeeds in ^^ getting on" with the
 
 " FAIR IN THE FEARLESS OLD FASHIONS 131 
 
 little '' wild Irish girl.'' And more than 
 one of his friends smile furtively, as they 
 hear his usually most successful ^^soft 
 nothings" responded to with crushing 
 matter-of-factness and gay lonhommie by 
 their unworthy recipient. So he thinks 
 he will defer what he would call ^^ making 
 strong running" with the little girl for 
 the present, and try the most ordinary 
 subjects of conversation. 
 
 ^^ We hear you have a vewy beautiful 
 black mare. Miss Fane ? " remarks le Beau 
 Sabreur. 
 
 ^^Yes, I have," answers Lil, lighting 
 up in a moment over this last topic. 
 
 '''- Mayn't we see her some day if we 
 pwomise to be good ? " 
 
 '''- Any day you like," responds Lil, 
 and Neal tries his best to hear the low-
 
 132 KILCORRAN, 
 
 toned speech in which Captain Sabreur is 
 evidently trying to arrange a future meet- 
 ing with his little neighbour, but laughs 
 outright the next instant, as the latter 
 answers loud and clear : 
 
 '''- No, don't come on Friday, because 
 it's the day I doctor up the poor people, 
 and you wouldn't like the bad legs and 
 that sort of thing, would you ? And 
 Saturday, all the morning, I must do the 
 house accounts, and ride over to Gortna- 
 morra to buy a pig, — but if I'm not long 
 in selecting the pig I might show you 
 '•'' Kittane" later in the afternoon, if you'd 
 care to come then ? " 
 
 ^^ Of course I shall come. Miss Fane," 
 says Beau Sabreur ; ^^ but couldn't you 
 make sure of giving mo the pleasure of 
 your society for a little longer period
 
 ''FAIR IN THE FEARLESS OLD FASHIONS 133 
 
 then, by deferwing the purchase of the 
 pig till next week ? " 
 
 ^^Put off buying a pig when they're 
 going up in price every day now ! why on 
 earth should I ? " 
 
 ^^ Weally, I can hardly give a good 
 weason, Miss Fane, but I had almost 
 hoped that you might have wished a vewy 
 little to see me again ! " 
 
 ^^ Captain Sabreur," says Lil gravely, 
 '^ of course I should be delighted to see 
 you at any time, as a rule, but to say that 
 I should dream of allowing the prospect 
 of your visit to interfere with my catch- 
 ing the right moment for buying a pig, 
 would be so perfectly wild an idea that I 
 feel sure you would not think of it in 
 reality for a moment ! '' 
 
 ^^ Quite right, Miss Fane," calls out the
 
 134 KILCORRAN. 
 
 loud clieery voice of Lil's host, with a 
 jovial chuckle. And more than one titter 
 of laughter round the table causes honest 
 Lil to open her eyes wide, and le Beau 
 Sabreur to wish sincerely that he had not 
 relied so rashly on the probable impression 
 an officer of the ^^ Household" might be 
 expected to effect on the minds of lonely 
 and desolate young women in out-of-the- 
 way countries ! 
 
 The ladies move to the drawing-room, 
 and there Lil first finds herself over- 
 whelmed with questions from the Miss 
 Breastplates anent ^^Kittane'^ and her 
 capabilities (which, literally translated, 
 means her rider's, not her own), and 
 all the other numerous questions which, 
 women fond of riding to hounds invari-
 
 '' FAIR IN THE FEARLESS OLD FASHION," 135 
 
 ably propound to those of their sex whom 
 they regard as possible rivals in that ac- 
 complishment. After that, she is begged 
 by tlie '^beautiful saint," as Lil calls her 
 in her heart still, the Lady Bella, to 
 ^^ come and sit by her and tell her all 
 about herself," i.e, to be put through a 
 a severe cross-questioning with the view 
 of discovering the precise length and limit 
 of Lil's acquaintance with Mr. Trench, 
 which is beginning to cause the Lady 
 Bella some surprise, as she herself has 
 found it unusually hard to gain any sort 
 of display of friendship from that appar- 
 ently unimpressionable gentleman. 
 
 ^' What a pretty dress that is of 
 yours, Miss Fane," is the first feline 
 overture.
 
 136 KILCORRAN. 
 
 '' Yes, I think it is/' answers Lil, 
 taking the remark in all honesty and 
 candour, and then adds somewhat shyly : 
 '' Ernest gave it me." 
 
 ^^ And who is Ernest ?" inquires Lady 
 Bella. 
 
 '^I mean Ernest Craven, whom I am 
 engaged to." 
 
 ^^ You engaged to be married ! — and to 
 Lord Ernest Craven! " and Lady Bella is 
 fairly woke up from her usual languid- 
 ness at the receipt of this apparently 
 startling piece of intelligence. 
 
 ^^ Wliy should I not be ? " inquires Lil. 
 
 *' Oh ! I don't know," hesitates her 
 companion, ^^ but you seem so young to 
 marry a man so wrapt up in reading and 
 study as Lord Ernest always is."
 
 " FAIR IN THE FEARLESS OLD FASHIONS 137 
 
 ^' I'm afraid I am," answers Lil 
 gravely, '' for sometimes I feel quite a 
 child, do you know, — but I try hard not 
 to be, and I am not to be married for 
 some months yet, so you see I shall be 
 older then and perhaps feel steadier," 
 concludes she hopefully. 
 
 Lady Bella gives a slight shrug to her 
 fair white shoulders, and looks at Lil as 
 one might at some newly - discovered 
 curiosity. It is some time since she has 
 wished to be older, though there are 
 uncharitable people who have said they 
 wished she were steadier. 
 
 '' My dear, what are you saying ? 
 Not wishing to be older, surely ! " breaks 
 in Lady Corraghmore. And Lil for the 
 second time explains the position, and her
 
 138 KILCORRAN, 
 
 engagement is commented upon freely 
 for the next ten minutes. 
 
 '-'' How long have you known Mr. 
 Trench ? " asks the Lady Bella at the 
 first available moment, pursuing the scent 
 steadil}^ 
 
 ^^ Only two weeks." 
 
 ^^ Do you like him ? " is the next ques- 
 tion put very quietly, but the woman of 
 the world studies the girPs face intently, 
 and no change of expression passes over it 
 unnoticed. 
 
 ^^ Of course I do, he's one of the few 
 friends I have ! " and Lil's head is slightly 
 thrown back as she looks her questioner 
 straight in the eyes. 
 
 Lady Bella's fall slightly, and she says 
 in a soft purring tone :
 
 « FAIR IN THE FEARLESS OLD FASHION T 139 
 
 *^ Fancy you talking of having few 
 friends ! wliy you could make fresh 
 ones every moment you lived if you 
 liked ! " 
 
 And the implied compliment of the 
 worldly woman is taken in with rapture 
 by tlie unworldly child, whose admiration 
 for her ^^ beautiful saint" is increasing 
 every moment. 
 
 The door leading from the dining- 
 room opens at this minute, and all the 
 men of the party come in by twos and 
 threes. Mr. Trench stops a moment as 
 he passes the nearest table, apparently to 
 glance at a paper lying on it, but in 
 reality to ^Hake in the situation" and 
 decide upon which group he will join for 
 the purposes of conversation.
 
 140 KILCORRAN. 
 
 ^^I wonder how much of the ways of 
 the world the saint has taught the sinner 
 by this time ! " thinks Neal to himself, as 
 he crosses the room towards the sofa on 
 which Lady Bella and her companion are 
 sitting, and draws a chair up near to it 
 with the remark : 
 
 ^' May I know what you two ladies are 
 discussing so earnestly ? '^ 
 
 ^^We were talking about you as it 
 happens," laughs Lil. 
 
 ^^All the more reason I should know 
 what you were saying, then, for it must 
 necessarily interest me more than any 
 one else ? " 
 
 *^ Lady Bella was asking how long I 
 had known you, and I said two weeks; 
 and whether we were already good 
 friends, and that sort of thing," says Lil.
 
 " FAIR IN THE FEARLESS OLD FASHIONP 141 
 
 Lady Bella fans herself a shade more 
 hurriedly than she is wont, as Mr. 
 Trench's eyes appear to look more en- 
 lightened by this information than might 
 have been expected from the simple words 
 alone. 
 
 ^^ Where did you get the lovely white 
 heather that is in your hair?" inquires 
 her Ladyship, to turn the conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 ^^Neal gave it to me," answers Lil. 
 
 ^^Who?" asks Lady Bella, seeing the 
 quick start which the said gentleman 
 gives at the sound of his Christian name 
 spoken in that clear young voice, and 
 maliciously determinuig upon its repeti- 
 tion with a view to disconcerting him still 
 further. 
 
 *^ Neal," responds the girl, with a nod
 
 142 KILCORRAN. 
 
 towards their companion, to establish his 
 identity. 
 
 To be called your Christian name in 
 strict private by an interesting young 
 woman is one thing, but to be called so in 
 public by the said young woman, when 
 the fact of doing so may cause much com- 
 ment, is another, — and so Neal feels it as 
 he sees Lady Bella put on an air of some- 
 what shocked surprise, and then glance 
 from his face to Lil's with an expression 
 of pretended bewilderment. 
 
 ^^Lil and I may not be very old 
 friends but we are very good ones. Lady 
 Bella, and we've arrived at the stage of 
 daring to drop the ^ Mr.' and ^ Miss ' of 
 polite society," says Neal Trench, with a 
 decision in his tone which lets that lady 
 understand he is accustomed to please
 
 " FAIR IN THE FEARLESS OLD FASHIONr 143 
 
 himself in all things and intends doing so 
 now. And Lady Corraghmore comes 
 across at this moment and entreats Lady 
 Bella to sing, which she rises to do at 
 once, without waiting to enhance the 
 value of her acquiescence by repeated 
 refusals first, as is her custom usually.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " The third board spake and said : 
 ' Is red gold worth a girl's gold head ? ' " 
 
 After Death. 
 
 VOL. I. 10
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 AN EVENING AT CORRAGHMORE. 
 
 ADY BELLA'S voice is a con- 
 tralto of no moderate order, but 
 her singing is spoilt by utter 
 want of expression; and even the last lines 
 of ^^ Quando a te lieta," where Siebel ap- 
 peals to Marguerite for the last time and 
 calls upon her name with such sad pathos, 
 were delivered by Lady Bella in the same 
 evenly monotonous tone that had been 
 preserved throughout the entire song. 
 
 Then the two Miss Breastplates played 
 a loud cheery duet on popular airs, in
 
 148 KILCORRAN. 
 
 which the tunes of ^'Auld Robin Gray" 
 and '^ Tommy, make room for your un- 
 cle," fought for pre-eminence. 
 
 From a sense of politeness more than 
 from any expectation of a satisfactory 
 result, Lady Corraghmore asks Lil whether 
 she can sing, and being answered in the 
 affirmative, begs her to do so. 
 
 Without an instant's hesitation the 
 girl sits down at once before the large 
 grand piano, facing the whole assembly, 
 and commences the first song which 
 occurs to her, ^'Across the Sea." 
 
 At the first sound of the glorious voice 
 every one starts with amazement, and as 
 the high notes in the second part of the 
 song ring out loud and sweet and clear 
 more than one of the auditors present 
 recognize the voice that had sung in the
 
 AN EVENING AT CORRAGHMORE. 149 
 
 Convent clioir at the last Sunday evening 
 service. 
 
 Neal Trench is watching the singer's 
 face, and wondering whether any power 
 on earth could change its expression of 
 frank carelessness to any deeper and 
 tenderer one. Even as he thinks this, the 
 girl's face saddens and softens suddenly^ 
 and the words of the second verse are 
 given with a power of expression beyond 
 all description : 
 
 " I stretch out my hands, who will clasp them? 
 I call, thou repliest no word j 
 Oh ! why should heart longing he weaker 
 Than the waving wings of a bird % 
 To thee, my love, to thee. 
 So fain would I come to thee ; — 
 For the tide's at rest from east to west. 
 And I look across the sea." 
 
 For one instant after the last notes of 
 the song have died away, Lil Fane sits
 
 150 KILCORRAN. 
 
 with her hands idly clasped on her lap ; 
 a dreamy look is in her eyes such as no 
 one has seen in them before, and a vague 
 wonder in her heart, as to why she should 
 so suddenly seem to realize to the full the 
 meaning of words which had so often 
 been sung by her in gay carelessness 
 before. 
 
 But she recovers herself with a start, 
 as one after the other of her audience 
 press round her with entreaties for fresh 
 songs of unlimited number. With her 
 usual innate courtesy she sings all the 
 songs they ask for, instead of those she 
 would have preferred to sing herself, — but 
 feels a slight feeling of disappointment 
 that amongst all the numerous requests, 
 from Neal alone none is forthcoming.
 
 AN EVENING AT CORRAGHMORE. 151 
 
 At last she is released from the piano, 
 and walks to one of the large windows 
 opening down to the ground, which had 
 been left half open to let in the heavily 
 scented evening air ; and leans her burn- 
 ing cheek against it, trying to cool down 
 the feverish excitement that the unac- 
 customed pleasure of hearing herself 
 flattered and praised, has caused. 
 
 A tall dark figure crosses the room 
 quietly, and Neal Trench's voice at her 
 side makes her start : 
 
 ^^Lil, what were you thinking of as 
 you sang the second verse of ^ Across the 
 Sea'?" 
 
 ^^ What I was thinking of? How can 
 I remember? The song, of course, I 
 suppose."
 
 152 KILCORRAN. 
 
 '^You're sure? Because you sang 
 the first verse as a careless child would 
 sing it, but the second verse as one sings 
 who has thought and felt deeply." 
 
 Again the puzzled, dreamy look comes 
 into Lil's eyes as he speaks, but is in- 
 stantly shaken off with a merry laugh as 
 she says : 
 
 ^' What or who could I have been 
 thinking of ' across the sea,' and what or 
 who could I have got up any '- feelings ' 
 over ? " 
 
 ^^ Lord Ernest Craven, possibly ! " and 
 Neal looks quickly at the fair frank face 
 beside him, applying a savage expletive, 
 under his breath, to that absent and most 
 amiable member of the aristocracy. 
 
 ^^ Dear old Ernest ! Oh ! no, Fd quite 
 forgotten him ! That is, I mean, just
 
 AN EVENING AT CORRAGHMORE. 153 
 
 then only, of course — " finishes Lil, rather 
 lamely. 
 
 Take warning, Neal Trench ! That 
 quick strong feeling of wicked joy in 
 your heart over this unintentional con- 
 fession will lead to no good ! 
 
 Lady Bella comes gliding up to the 
 window and joins the two standing in it, 
 uttering many a pretty soft-toned flattery 
 over Miss Fane and Miss Fane's voice, — 
 and waits for the moment when she can 
 see her way to giving that presumptuous 
 young woman (who had dared to obvi- 
 ously interest a man, where the Lady 
 Bella herself had failed to do so) a stab 
 that would lower the proud little head 
 and shade the fearless eyes ! 
 
 ^^ Mr. Trench, have you heard the 
 piece of news Miss Fane has been telling
 
 154 KILCORRAN. 
 
 US since dinner — that she is engaged to 
 Lord Ernest Craven ? " and Lady Bella 
 turns and watches his face to judge of the 
 effect of her words. 
 
 ^^Miss Fane told me so herself some 
 time ago," answers Neal coldly. 
 
 «< Weren't you surprised ? We all 
 were ! " 
 
 ^^ At his good fortune ; yes ! " 
 
 '•'' I mean that, of course." 
 
 Lillis Fane stands looking from one 
 to the other with a face of grave in- 
 quiry, as she hears herself discussed, but 
 Lady Bella turns suddenly on her with 
 the remark : 
 
 ^^ Have you congratulated Mr. Trench 
 also on his engagement to Miss Airlie ? " 
 
 '-^ Are you engaged to be married?" 
 says Lil calmly, turning to Neal Trench,
 
 AN EVENING AT CORRAGHMORE. 155 
 
 whose face grows darker and darker as he 
 answers shortly : 
 
 ^^ Yes, certainly I am." 
 
 ^^Pm so glad! I like all my friends 
 to do everything that I do." 
 
 It were difficult to say whose face 
 looked the blackest at this announcement, 
 Neal's or the Lady Bella's; and it was 
 in a tone of heart-felt vexation that the 
 latter added : 
 
 *^ You'll see Miss Airlie at the dance 
 that is going to be given here the week 
 after next." 
 
 ^^ Shall I? That'll be very nice!" 
 but the girl's heart grows strangely 
 cold as she says it, and she hurriedly 
 adds : 
 
 ^^ Do you think they'll ask me to this 
 ball ? I never was at one in my life ! "
 
 156 KILCORRAN. 
 
 '^ Never been to a ball in your life ! " 
 echoes Lady Bella in utter astonishment, 
 who has yalsed many hundred miles round 
 innumerable ball-rooms, in the arms of 
 innumerable men, herself. 
 
 ^^No; but I can dance," answers Lil, 
 conscious that this fact must be an open 
 question after such a confession as hers. 
 
 And now Lady Corraghmore gives the 
 signal for the ladies to retire upstairs ; and 
 after much lighting of candles, and de- 
 sultory talk, and all the necessary delays 
 characteristic of the fair sex on those 
 occasions, they are fairly on their way 
 to their own rooms at last. 
 
 As they reach the great passage at the 
 head of the stairs and all final good-nights 
 are being interchanged, Lady Bella offers
 
 AN EVENING AT CORRAGHMORE. 157 
 
 to accompany Miss Fane to her room 
 to see *^if she has everythmg she re- 
 quires." 
 
 '* Yes do, dear," says their kind-heart- 
 ed hostess, thinking that *^the younger 
 ones would like a chat together by them- 
 selves, no doubt." And she kisses Lil 
 again in a warm motherly fashion, whilst 
 handing her over to the care of ^^the 
 beautiful saint." 
 
 ^^ Don't you hate bed-rooms in sum- 
 mer when there is no fire ? " inquires the 
 latter, placing her fan and gloves on the 
 mantel-piece and leaning against it, as if 
 to induce herself to believe that a fire 
 were burning there. ^^It's so hard to 
 talk without one." 
 
 ^^ I never have any one to talk to,"
 
 158 KILCORRAN. 
 
 answers Lil simply, proceeding quietly, 
 with an apology to her self-invited guest, 
 to take off her dress and ornaments, and 
 to put on a dressing-gown. 
 
 ^^Oh! don't mind me! and do take 
 your hair down too ! " says Lady Bella, 
 thinking that at last she will be able to 
 solve the question which has been per- 
 turbing her spirit frequently during the 
 course of the evening, — as to whether 
 Lil's golden coil of hair was all her own, 
 or not. 
 
 As it slowly untwists itself and falls 
 down bit by bit on the girl's shoulders. 
 Lady Bella is fain to confess to herself 
 that there really is no doubt at all on the 
 matter ; and the sight thereof, recalling as 
 it does many bills for luxuriant plaits
 
 AN EVENING AT CORRAGHMORE. 159 
 
 and odd curls owed to Messrs. Truefit, 
 Isidor, and Co., does not have a soothing 
 effect altogether on that lady. 
 
 ^' How odd of Mr. Trench not to tell 
 you he was engaged to be married," she 
 remarks, looking attentively at LiPs face 
 where it is fully reflected in the large 
 looking-glass. 
 
 ^^Why should he?" asks the latter 
 carelessly, though in truth the very same, 
 idea has come before her mind again and 
 again ever since the subject has been 
 mooted. 
 
 ^^Oh! because you seem such great 
 friends," says the Lady Bella, with a sweet 
 smile of innocent girlishness, though not a 
 single expression passing over Lil's face 
 escapes her keen glance. ^^ People say
 
 160 KILCORRAN. 
 
 he's very much much in love with Janet 
 Airlie," she adds. 
 
 '^ Of course, he must be, else he 
 wouldn't have asked her to marry him," 
 returns downright Lil, in a tone of deep 
 conviction. 
 
 '^ That's not always so certain," laughs 
 her companion; ^^ most people marry for 
 everything except love now-a-days ! " 
 
 ^^Do they?" inquires Lil, with wide- 
 open eyes. 
 
 ^^ Yes, of course ! and a lucky thing 
 too. Else the whole of society would be 
 nothing but one large honey-moon, and 
 how should we get on in the world 
 then ? " — and Lady Bella laughs heartily 
 as she pictures such an Arcadian state of 
 things to herself.
 
 AN EVENING AT CORRAGHMORE. 161 
 
 ^^ One knows what getting on in the 
 world means for men, but what does it 
 mean for women ? " asks Lil, in the same 
 puzzled grave tone. 
 
 ^^ It means marrying well (by well I 
 
 mean a rich man of course), having any 
 
 amount of new dresses and diamonds, 
 
 horses, opera-boxes, etc. — having all the 
 
 men liking and making up to you, and all 
 
 the women hating and envying you ; in 
 
 fact, my dear, it means perfect happiness, 
 
 such as riches alone can give ! " and Lady 
 
 Bella gives a sigh of genuine discontent 
 
 as she reflects, with more humility than is 
 
 usual to her, that not all her beauty, nor 
 
 her irreproachable toilettes, nor her efforts 
 
 to please, have as yet beer successful in 
 
 securing this haven of bliss for her own 
 
 soul. 
 
 VOL. I. 11
 
 162 KILCORRAN. 
 
 ^^Now good-night, Miss Fane," slie 
 says, and takes up her candle to depart. 
 *^I think we shall be good friends, shan't 
 we?" 
 
 ^^ Oh ! yes," answers Lil eagerly ; but 
 some odd intuition makes her joause in 
 the warm childish speech of gratitude for 
 the proffered friendship which she was 
 about to make. And it was far into the 
 night before she had decided in her ot\ti 
 mind whether she were the least bit dis- 
 ajDpointed in her ^^ beautiful saint," or not.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 " We know not whether death be good, 
 But life at least it will not be : 
 Men will stand saddening as we stood, — 
 Watch the same fields and skies as we, 
 And the same sea." 
 
 Felise.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 GARDE LA FOI. 
 
 HE next day broke beautifully 
 bright, and great was the dis- 
 cussion during breakfast whether 
 a long-proposed expedition to the sea, 
 including a picnic-luncheon, should take 
 place on that very morning without 
 further delay. 
 
 Lady Corraghmore was as usual 
 strongly in favour of anything which 
 seemed to promise a day's enjoyment 
 for any one else; and finally it was ar- 
 ranged that a start should be made at
 
 166 KILCORRAN. 
 
 twelve o'clock in all available vehicles 
 to be found in the coach-house of Corragh- 
 more. 
 
 These, on examination, proved to con- 
 sist of one large open carriage in which to 
 transport the chaperones of the party at 
 their ease ; one long break, suitable for 
 the younger members of society, whose 
 constitutions were more likely to be proof 
 against the side-ways and crab-like motion 
 of that vehicle; one light cart for the 
 lunch; and, finally, a small pony-carriage 
 drawn by a fat old pony short of leg and 
 wind, which, if time were of any object, 
 was carefully to be avoided. 
 
 ^^ May I have the honour of driving 
 you in this very primitive shay. Miss 
 Fane?" asks Mr. Trench, looking up at 
 Lil as she stands leaning on the stone
 
 GARDE LA FOL 167 
 
 balustrade bordering tlie steps of the hall- 
 door, and thinking to himself how much 
 prettier she looks in her little braided 
 brown holland morning-dress than does 
 the Lady Bella in hers, which is of some 
 marvellously delicate shade, profusely 
 trimmed with lace, and looking as if the 
 smallest drop of rain must perforce seal 
 its fate for ever. 
 
 ^^ I should like to go in it if I may,." 
 answers the girl brightly; ^^but may we, 
 do you suppose ? " 
 
 ^^ I don't think many people are likely 
 to be clamorous for the honour ; but we'll 
 ask Corraghmore if you have any doubts 
 on the subject." And Neal saunters over 
 slowly to where their host is good-na- 
 turedly struggling to impress upon his 
 retainers, that no smallest trifle relative to
 
 168 KILCORRAN. 
 
 the comfort of the party is on any account 
 to be forgotten. 
 
 ^^ May you drive Miss Fane in the 
 little carriage with the fat pony? Of 
 course you may, my dear fellow! And 
 if you knew the hopelessness of your 
 prospect in ever arriving at the sea, and 
 still more of your ever getting home 
 again, with that said pony, — you'd have 
 every reason to congratulate yourself on 
 having secured so excellent a companion 
 to wile away the hours with ! But I say, 
 Trench, don't lose your heart to the little 
 girl, or what'll Janet Airlie say?" And 
 the jolly Baronet gives a mischievous 
 chuckle at the disconcerted expression on 
 his companion's face, as the latter turns 
 and walks back to where Lil is standing, 
 near the pony-carriage.
 
 GARDE LA FOL 169 
 
 ^^ What did Sir Derrick say?" asks 
 she. 
 
 ''He says that of course we may go 
 in the pony-carriage if we like." 
 
 ''Yes, I know; but what was it he 
 said at the end which made you look so 
 — what we call in this country — 
 ' bothered ! ' " and Lil's clear eyes scru- 
 tinize his face unmercifully. 
 
 " Only some nonsensical chaff, Lil," 
 answers Neal evasively. " Come and get 
 in, for they're all about ready to start 
 now." 
 
 Lillis Fane was in one of her bright- 
 est, merriest moods, and more than once 
 had Neal Trench reason to realize the 
 sageness of Sir Derrick's remark, that he 
 had selected a first-rate companion to wile 
 away the tedium of the journey.
 
 170 KILCORRAN. 
 
 Thanks to the way leading down to 
 the sea being all down-hill, the fat pony 
 waddled along faster than could confid- 
 ently have been expected; but the slow- 
 ness of the walk into which he relapsed 
 whenever the slightest rise occurred in 
 the road, boded ill for the return journey 
 with its long unceasing pull against the 
 collar. 
 
 The first consideration on arriving at 
 the sea-shore was to decide on a suitable 
 spot for luncheon, — the second, to look at 
 the view. The latter was grand enough 
 to merit more than the superficial at- 
 tention it received from most of the party; 
 for the giant cliffs on which they stood 
 rose sheer and straight out of the very 
 jaws of the sea, and many a great At- 
 lantic roller had swept proudly and irre-
 
 GARDE LA FOL 171 
 
 sistibly from west to east in all its grand 
 strength, only to find itself shivered to 
 atoms at last against the face of those 
 huge, black, basaltic cliffs, whose strength 
 was ten thousand-fold greater than its 
 own. Far down below, the waves kept up 
 a perpetual hoarse roar — like the cry of an 
 angry, famishing crowd, — and the spray 
 rose high, as wave after wave dashed 
 itself on to the smaller rocks at the foot qf 
 the cliffs, whilst the shrill cry of the 
 sea-gulls and cormorants filled up the 
 occasional lull in their deep monotone. 
 
 Lady Bella advanced cautiously to the 
 edge and looked over, carefully supported 
 by Beau Sabreur, who put his glass in 
 his eye and surveyed the view with all 
 the insouciant immoveability of the true 
 Briton.
 
 172 KILCORRAN. 
 
 *^ How grand ! " says Lady Bella, 
 inwardly wondering whether the world 
 in general, and Neal Trench in particular, 
 can possibly think of looking at the 
 distant view when there is a figure in the 
 foreground so much better worth study- 
 ing. 
 
 ^'Vewy gwand," assents Capt. Sa- 
 breur, ^^but still I always think there's 
 a good deal of sameness in waves, don't 
 you ? " 
 
 ^^ Yes, perhaps so," returns Lady Bella 
 vaguely. ^' Mr. Trench, do you think 
 that what you are looking at is very 
 charming ? " 
 
 ^^ Singularly so. Lady Bella," answers 
 Neal with a start, conscious that the latter 
 lady has observed the earnest attention 
 he has been giving to a certain little
 
 GARDE LA FOI. 173 
 
 figure in a brown hoUand dress, picking 
 its way amongst some loose stones and 
 rocks, to reach the very farthest point 
 of a small headland which stretched out 
 into the sea. 
 
 ^^ Then you really admire uncultivated 
 nature ? " inquires Lady Bella, in a tone 
 which betrays more earnestness than the 
 subject seems to require. 
 
 '^ Of course, I admire it. Men have 
 generally a fair idea of the beautiful, 
 though women alone succeed in achiev- 
 ing it." 
 
 Lady Bella shrugs her [shoulders with 
 a little disdainful grace all her own, and 
 takes the compliment to herself in all 
 good faith ; then, accompanied by her 
 cavalier, returns to where the luncheon is 
 being slowly unpacked under the shade of
 
 174 KILCORRAN, 
 
 a high bank covered with the everlasting 
 '^rag-weed " so characteristic of the north 
 of Ireland, which tells its own tale of 
 poverty of soil and uncultivation of 
 
 ground. 
 
 Neal Trench saunters out on to the 
 headland, where Lil Fane is sitting on a 
 low rock, her chin resting on her hands, 
 and her eyes gazing far out to sea, where 
 a long line of dark smoke speaks of some 
 outward bound vessel on her way to the 
 New World. 
 
 ^' What are you thinking of so earnest- 
 ly, Lil ? " asks he, sitting down beside her. 
 
 '-^ Of that steamer out there. Wonder- 
 ing: who are on board of her, and what 
 they will see, and wishing that I were one 
 of them." 
 
 ^^ What do you want to go out to
 
 GARDE LA FOI. 175 
 
 America for ? " inquires Neal, lighting a 
 cigarette, ^and thinking that he would be 
 quite satisfied to remain where he was 
 for an indefinite period of time, provided 
 that his companionship remained the 
 same. 
 
 ^^ Oh ! I don't care to see the whole of 
 America," answers Lil. '^It's only the 
 very Far West I want to go to. Have 
 you ever been there ? " 
 
 ^^Yes, often. It's a grand country, 
 that California ? " and Neal Trench loses 
 much of his usual insouciance of manner, 
 and his voice takes an earnest ring, as he 
 describes the Aladdin-like city of San 
 Francisco, the glorious snow-capped range 
 of the Sierra Nevada, and the grand, 
 almost unearthly, beauty of the Yo 
 Semite Valley.
 
 176 KILCORRAN. 
 
 Lillis Fane listens eagerly, and it is 
 with real regret that both obey the 
 summons to luncheon, which Le Beau 
 Sabreur brings them after a while. 
 
 The said luncheon passed off as 
 cheerily and as uncomfortably as most 
 al fresco meals do. Grasshoppers in 
 the salad, midges in the claret cup, — 
 double the number of knives required, but 
 only three forks amongst fifteen people. 
 No salt, — but an extra quantity of sugar, 
 — and nothing in the way of tumblers to 
 speak of. Still it was a success, for every 
 one laughed and enjoyed the misfortunes 
 inseparable from an entertainment of this 
 sort ; and it was only after much wander- 
 ing along the cliffs had exhausted the 
 younger members of the party, that they 
 considered it time to listen to the words
 
 GARDE LA FOI. 177 
 
 of wisdom from their elders, and to 
 get under weigh for the homeward 
 journey. 
 
 At first Neal Trench and his com- 
 panion progressed quite to their satisfac- 
 tion behind the fat old pony, but soon, 
 very soon, did he cry enough 1 The first 
 Bowpqon of a hill was sufficient to cause 
 him to relapse into a pace that even the 
 ever famous tortoise of fabulous memory 
 would certainly have despised. Not only 
 that, but he puffed and blew so, that 
 common Christian charity compelled his 
 charioteer to alight and prepare to walk 
 the rest of the uphill five miles of road to 
 Corraghmore. 
 
 ^^Do you know that there is to be a 
 dance at Corraghmore the week after 
 next ? " says Neal, laying his hand on the 
 
 VOL. I. 12
 
 178 KILCORRAN, 
 
 side of the pony-carriage and speaking to 
 its occupant. 
 
 ^^ Yes, I heard Lady Bella say some- 
 thing about it last night," — and Lil's eyes 
 dance with delight. ^^ Will they ask me 
 should you think ? " 
 
 ^^ Why shouldn't they? — of course 
 they will. And you must promise me one 
 or two valses to begin with, and more 
 yalses a discretion as the evening goes on ! " 
 
 ^^ I'll dance as many as ever you like 
 with you," laughs Lil, ^^more especially 
 as no one else is likely to ask me ! " 
 
 ^^ I have my doubts as to that. Still 
 if the whole world came on its bended 
 knees to you that evening, I shall still 
 claim your promise, remember ! " 
 
 ^'Yes, I'll remember. And I hope 
 you'll think I dance well, for Sister
 
 GARDE LA FOL 179 
 
 Magdalen taught me that also, and she 
 would be so vexed if I could not man- 
 age it." 
 
 ^^I'll chance that gladly," says Neal, 
 " and I think you're much more likely to 
 find fault with me than I with you." 
 
 ^' I must get a new dress to wear at 
 it," observes Lil, with the earnestness 
 befitting so serious a subject of considera- 
 tion. ^^ I wonder if Ernest would find me 
 one in London, if I told him very exactly 
 what I wanted." 
 
 " Tm going over to England next 
 week," says Neal quickly, conscious that 
 somehow or other he would give worlds 
 not to see any other man's taste in dress 
 displayed on Lil Fane. ^^ And I'll order 
 everything in the world you like for you. 
 But I'd give anything to see you in white.
 
 180 KILCORRAN. 
 
 Lil; I mean all white — dress, and all the 
 rest of it, — couldn't you wear that ? " 
 
 ^^ Just what I was thinking of, strange 
 to say. Well, I will write down exactly 
 what I want ; and then will you really go 
 and choose it yourself, and not leave it to 
 the shop people ?'' and Lil's eyes interro- 
 gate his face anxiously. 
 
 ^^ Yes, I promise faithfully to go and 
 see to it myself." And such is the satis- 
 faction in Neal's mind at having anyhow 
 for once succeeded in gaining the privi- 
 lege of choosing Miss Fane's ball toilettes 
 himself, that he omits to mention the fact 
 of his never having in his life, as yet, 
 dared even to think of selecting a shawl 
 for an old woman at Christmas, or a 
 turban for a nigger in the tropics.
 
 GARDE LA FOI. 181 
 
 However, he hurriedly remembers that 
 after all he can throw himself upon the 
 honour of the clerks and show-women 
 at Messrs. Marshall and Snelgrove's, to 
 which emporium Lil has carefully directed 
 him, and that with any luck he cannot 
 go so very far wrong in ^' all white ! " 
 
 There is a long pause for a time, 
 broken at last by an abrupt remark from 
 Lil Fane, said in a grave tone : 
 
 ^^I'm so glad I'm not really good; 
 aren't you ? " 
 
 ^^ Well, to me it's rather a case of 
 ^sour grapes,' I suppose," answers Neal 
 Trench. ^^But why do you say that, 
 Lil ? " 
 
 ^^ Oh, because last night in the draw- 
 ing-room I heard two very, very good
 
 132 KILCORRAN. 
 
 women discussing a third — a girl in our 
 village who ran away with a gentleman 
 that came last year to stay near here for 
 shooting. And they were so terribly hard 
 on her, poor thing, that I felt it difficult 
 to keep quiet and not stand up for her. 
 They don't know as I do, what a miser- 
 able home she had, — her father cursing 
 and her mother scolding all day, when 
 either of them were sober enough to 
 speak; the only one of the children she 
 cared for died in her arms of the decay, 
 (what you would call consumption,) and 
 her heart was nearly broke. And then 
 came this gentleman^ a clever, charming 
 man of the world, who taught her to 
 think that there might be such a thing as 
 a Paradise on earth, and that it should 
 be hers ! Small wonder that she failed
 
 GARDE LA FOI. 183 
 
 before the temptation ! Which of those 
 women who pronounced their judgment 
 on her last night, knows of the weary 
 battle between right and wrong that that 
 poor girl fought, with no hand stretched 
 out to help her ? What can they who are 
 so good, and so surrounded by goodness, 
 know of the bitter temptation to one like 
 her ? No ! I'd sooner be poor Mary 
 Conway than one of those who judged 
 her hardly, were I myself to be judged 
 to-night ! " And Lil's eyes glisten with a 
 half -shed tear, and her cheeks burn red, as 
 she thinks over the coldly matter-of-fact 
 comments poor Mary's story had called 
 forth from the virtuous matrons clad in 
 silk and satin, and hedged in with a ring- 
 fence of proprieties and convenances^ whose 
 feeling of security against the storm of
 
 184 KILCORRAN. 
 
 temptation is probably much enhanced 
 by the happy thought that there are so 
 very many out in the midst of the tem- 
 pest still ! 
 ! ^^ Fortunately all good women are not 
 
 necessarily uncharitable, so don't take this 
 instance so much to heart, little one," 
 answers her companion. '^ Look at Lady 
 Corraghmore ! she isn't likely to judge 
 hardly of any one, is she ? " 
 
 ^^ Oh ! no," says Lil warmly; ^^ she's 
 too good not to be a bit bad. I mean 
 that she's bad enough to feel for those who 
 are wicked, but too good to^do as they 
 do." 
 
 '^ Yes, there's a great deal in that," 
 assents Neal Trench musingly. ^^ There's 
 many a man or woman that is respected
 
 GARDE LA FOI. 185 
 
 in this world chiefly because they have 
 steered safely through a life in which no 
 shadow of temptation or danger has ever 
 entered ; — whereas many who have had to 
 take the lower place were only brought to 
 it after years of struggle and weariness 
 and utter heart-loneliness, such as their 
 happier brethren never knew even in 
 their dreams! But, Lil, don't look so 
 grave, child ! — tell me what you think of 
 your first visit to Corraghmore, and your 
 opinion of society there in general ? " 
 
 And the girl shakes off grave thoughts, 
 and is once more talking and laughing in 
 her usual gay light-hearted fashion, as she 
 sums up her ideas on the people in whose 
 company her last twenty-four hours have 
 been spent.
 
 186 , KILCORRAN. 
 
 '•^ I like those two Miss Breastplates, 
 rather ; don't you ? Only they ask me so 
 many questions about ^ Kittane,' and as 
 to whether I ride hard, and all that sort of 
 thing, that I can hardly answer. I'm sure 
 they wouldn't like me at all if they only 
 knew hoio well ' Kittane ' can jump ! " 
 says Lil with a merry twinkle in her 
 mischievous eyes. 
 
 ^' You've never seen hounds in your 
 life I su|)pose, Lil, have you ? " 
 
 *^ No, but I hope to, this winter. 
 Ernest says I am to go over to England 
 in February, to stay at his brother's 
 house — that is where their mother lives, 
 you know. And I may bring ^ Kittane ' 
 with me ; and it's the best hunting country 
 in all England, they say. But I never
 
 GARDE LA FOI. 187 
 
 think about it more than I can help for 
 fear it won't come true. Nothing ever 
 comes true that one looks forward to too 
 much J " adds Lil with much philosophy, 
 but an impatient sigh. 
 
 ^^ And when are you going to be mar- 
 ried ? " asks Neal Trench ; and somehow 
 he half dreads the answer to his own 
 question. 
 
 ^^Next Spring, I believe," answers Lil 
 carelessly. ^' It shall be just when Ernest 
 likes, and I think he said about that time, 
 but I don't quite remember." Not remem- 
 ber ! and though Neal hears the calm 
 statement with undisguised satisfaction, in 
 his heart he can but pity the childish 
 ignorance of life which prompts it. 
 
 Some evil demon seems to urge him
 
 188 KILCORRAN. 
 
 on to sliow Lil her danger, and to bid her 
 eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good 
 and Evil ; and he says abruptly : 
 
 ^^ It's a sin that they let you marry 
 like this, when you're too young to know 
 your own mind, and haven't seen enough 
 of the world to judge for yourself yet ! 
 What will you do if years hence you learn 
 too late what real love means ? " 
 
 ^^I have learnt what it means, Neal," 
 says Lil, wonderingly — '^why, I like 
 Ernest better than any one in the world 
 except father ; and though he sits and 
 thinks all day, and is far too clever for me 
 to understand him always or dare to talk 
 to him much, — still you don't know how 
 kind he is to me, and I'm very grate- 
 ful. Wliat is love if it's not that ? " and
 
 GARDE LA FOI. 189 
 
 the speaker's eyes, as they meet those of 
 her companion, are clear and untroubled 
 as a child's. His own fall, and his hand- 
 some dark face flushes, as there comes a 
 short quick struggle in his heart, whether 
 he shall or shall not tell her then and 
 there of his own deep wild love for her, 
 which has been growing day by day until 
 it has gained a strength that he has never 
 till this moment realized. 
 
 But the thought of loyalty to the 
 bonnie blue-eyed lassie he has asked to 
 be his wife, comes before his mind just 
 in time to prevent the storm of feeling in 
 him breaking forth past all control, — and 
 it is with steady self-command that he 
 answers Lil Fane's last question, though 
 his eyes look straight before him and at
 
 190 KILCORRAN. 
 
 anything in the world so it be not her 
 own. 
 
 ^^ The feeling you speak of is a very 
 deep and a very true one, and is more 
 likely to last through sunshine and storm, 
 for year after year, than is the madness 
 which men call love ! Perhaps it's all 
 the better for those who can feel the 
 former only, and know nothing of the 
 wild irresistible power of the latter, 
 which sweeps all before it ! When the 
 world is simply divided into, where the 
 one being one cares for Z5, or is not^ — and 
 when the sound of a voice or a footfall 
 comprises to oneself all the most glorious 
 music that the whole great earth can 
 bring ! " 
 
 There is a silence, and once more the 
 look he had seen before — a look as of
 
 GARDE LA FOL 191 
 
 one listening for a strain of music 
 which has been dreamed of but never 
 heard, — crosses LiPs face and troubles 
 its bright, frank expression. Then she 
 says quietly: 
 
 '^ And that is how you care for your 
 future wife ? " 
 
 For the life of him he cannot tell the 
 conventional lie with those sweet, honest 
 grey eyes looking at him so steadily ! 
 
 " No, I do not^'' he says. 
 
 What is the feeling that has so sud- 
 denly made Lil's heart to dance in her 
 breast for joy ? Why does the sky look 
 brighter and all the things on earth im- 
 measurably sweeter to her, since a minute 
 ago ? The girl is too fearless in her 
 ignorance of life to question the meaning 
 of it all, only she talks and laughs with
 
 192 KILCORRAN. 
 
 redoubled joyousness ; and it is with real 
 chagrin that they find themselves safely 
 arrived at last at the hall-door of Corragh- 
 more, — just one hour and a quarter later 
 than any other members of the party.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " If one day's sorrow- 
 Mar the day's morrow — 
 If man's life borrow 
 
 And man's life pay — 
 If souls once taken, 
 If lives once shaken, 
 Arise, awaken, 
 By night, by day." 
 
 Anima Anceps. 
 
 VOL. I. 13
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 [, ^ 
 
 ^' POOR JACK.'' 
 
 HREE days after this, most of 
 the present inmates of Cor- 
 raghmore are wending their 
 way, about four o'clock in the afternoon, 
 down to the River House, to see Lillis 
 Fane and her home. 
 
 CajDtain Sabreur is suffering from a 
 feeling of sulky vexation unusual to the 
 imperturbably amiable disposition of that 
 gallant officer; but as he had selected 
 this particular Saturday afternoon for a 
 call on Miss Fane on his own account,
 
 196 KILCORRAN. 
 
 (during which he had hoped to make a 
 favourable impression on that somewhat 
 difficile young lady,) it was natural 
 that he should scarcely a23prove of eight 
 or ten fellow-souls electing to do the 
 same thing at that very time. Especially 
 as the said fellow-souls included Neal 
 Trench amongst them, whom even Le 
 Beau Sabreur's vanity could not dis- 
 guise from himself, was a dangerous 
 rival. 
 
 Lady Bella, on the contrary, is per- 
 fectly happy this afternoon; firstly, be- 
 cause she is conscious that the tight- 
 fitting ^ prune de Monsieur' coloured 
 cashmere she wears suits her to per- 
 fection, as does also the large black velvet 
 hat, with one side caught up by a knot of 
 ribbons to match ; and secondly, because
 
 ''POORJACKr 197 
 
 ever since Mr. Trench arrived to lunch at 
 Corraghmore that day, he has devoted 
 himself entirely to Lady Corraghmore 
 and herself, scarcely speaking a word to 
 any one else. And as Lady Corraghmore 
 is an old friend, and his hostess to boot, 
 Lady Bella does not consider her to 
 count ; and feels quite satisfied that she, 
 and she alone, is the attraction that has 
 drawn Neal Trench over there so soon 
 again. 
 
 Little does she know that that astute 
 individual has been racking his brains 
 ever since Tuesday evening last, how to 
 encompass a failure of Le Beau Sabreur's 
 prepared Ute-a-Ute at the Eiver House — 
 not to say how to ensure a visit for. himself 
 in the same locality on that very Satur- 
 day afternoon. A few words to Lady
 
 198 KILCORRAN. 
 
 Corraghmore anent the pictures and 
 etceteras at the Kiver House, and a 
 judicious appeal to any or all of the party 
 to accompany him part of the way home — 
 whereby they must perforce pass by the 
 said River House, — ^liave been all that is 
 necessary not only to get his plan carried 
 out, but also to look as if it were any 
 one's plan but his own. And now he can 
 well afford to be as gay and attentive as 
 even the Lady Bella Donner can wish ; his 
 spirits rising in proportion as those of 
 Le Beau Sabreur sink. 
 
 As they near their destination, an ex- 
 clamation from one of the Miss Breast- 
 plates draws attention to something which 
 Neal Trench's eyes have been silently 
 watching for some minutes past. A 
 slight figure in a grey habit, on a black
 
 ''POOR JACKr 199 
 
 horse, is riding slowly along a rough 
 bridle-road which leads down from the 
 mountains into the flat grass meadows 
 that border the Ehua, on the opposite side 
 of the river to that on which the Corragh- 
 more party stand. 
 
 As horse and rider reach the bottom of 
 the defile they quicken their pace, and 
 are soon abreast of those observing them 
 from the opposite brink. 
 
 ^^It's Lil Fane!" says Lady Corragh- 
 more. ^^And her black mare too!" echo 
 the Miss Breastplates. 
 
 Unconscious of observation, and look- 
 ing straight before, Lil Fane rides past, 
 the slight figure swaying easily to the 
 long sweeping stride of the powerful black 
 mare, who every now and then snatches 
 wildly at her bridle and shakes her lean
 
 200 KILCORRAN, 
 
 head as much as to say, that it's only out 
 of condescension she submits to this quiet 
 and lady -like pace. 
 
 Suddenly ^^Kittane" gives a violent 
 shy at sight of a piece of dead bracken 
 waving in the wind, wheeling round on 
 her haunches and plunging wildly in an 
 opposite direction; but she is as quickly 
 turned again by her rider's steady quiet 
 hand, and continues galloping on with 
 her grand striding action as before. 
 
 '^ Isn't it rather an odd thing for a girl 
 of that age to ride all about the country 
 alone, Mr. Trench?" asks Lady Bella, 
 with a sweet deprecating smile. 
 
 For a good minute she gets no reply. 
 Neal has been anxiously watching which 
 way Lil Fane will decide to reach the 
 stables of the River House — whether by
 
 ''POOR jack:' 201 
 
 the bridge and front gate like a sensible 
 being, or by lier dangerous short cut. 
 
 The question is speedily solved at this 
 very moment, by the apparition of the 
 black mare and her rider between the 
 scattered trees bordering the bit of grass 
 intersected by the boundary fence. Neal 
 Trench watches them anxiously, and once 
 more he can just see the mare make a wild 
 rush at the fence, and the sun lights up 
 the grey habit of her rider as they both 
 rise in the air, — and in another instant 
 they are both to be seen on the far side 
 of the fence, trotting leisurely up to 
 the yard-gate at the back of the Eiver 
 House, 
 
 ^^I beg your pardon, Lady Bella, you 
 asked something, did you not ? " and Neal 
 Trench turns to her, after giving a deep
 
 202 KILCORRAN. 
 
 sigh of relief at *^Kittane's" satisfactory 
 performance. 
 
 ^^I did ask a question some time ago, 
 Mr. Trencli, but you were too distrait to 
 answer it," returns Lady Bella with some 
 asperity. 
 
 ^' I beg your pardon a thousand times ; 
 but do forgive me and tell it me again, 
 Lady Bella, won't you ? " 
 
 '' Oh ! it was only to ask if you didn't 
 think it very odd to see as young a girl as 
 Miss Fane riding all alone about the 
 country as she does ? " 
 " In what way odd ? " 
 '^ Why ! too free and easy, and show- 
 ing too little regard for ' les convenances,' 
 and what the world will say of her ! " 
 
 ^^Lady Bella, if the w^orld ever says 
 evil of that bright, honest, free-hearted
 
 ''POOR JACK." 203 
 
 child, it is a far worse one than even I 
 think it! And certainly I can see little 
 harm in her riding about alone in a wild 
 country like this, where a curlew or a 
 mountain sheep are about the only living 
 things she is likely to come across." 
 
 ^^Of course I was thinking chiefly of 
 the danger of the proceeding," says Lady 
 Bella coldly. 
 
 '' That's true enough certainly, and 
 that mare she is so fond of is the devil 
 itself to ride sometimes, I fancy. But I 
 must go on to open the lodge-gate, for it's 
 got a queer lock, and I see Sabreur bung- 
 ling it to perfection." 
 
 *^You are well acquainted with this 
 particular gate, I perceive," is the last 
 parting shot delivered by the Lady Bella. 
 
 Lillis Fane came out of the hall door
 
 204 KILCORRAN. 
 
 to welcome her guests, and took them Into 
 the bright comfortable morning-room, 
 calling out to Robarts in her blithe young 
 voice as she did so, to '^ bring the tea 
 quickly and not to forget the hot tea- 
 cakes." 
 
 Lady Corraghmore glanced round the 
 luxuriously furnished room with an in- 
 tense astonishment, which did not lessen 
 as she watched the perfectly natural 
 repose of manner shown by her young 
 hostess, in paying all necessary attention 
 to her large circle of guests. 
 
 Beau Sabreur, who had been prowling 
 about the garden, entered a few minutes 
 later with the announcement of: 
 
 ^^Miss Fane! there's the most extwa- 
 ordinawy old man in a bath-chair just 
 coming in at the fwont gate; he looks
 
 ''POOR jack:' 205 
 
 quite an owiginal, and — damn it, man ! 
 that's my leg ! " and Capt. Sabreur looks 
 ruefully at Mr. Trench, and then, sticking 
 his glass in his eye, surveys his injured 
 shin as if he expected to see a stream of 
 gore well forth from his irreproachable 
 knickerbocker stockings. 
 
 A grateful glance from LiPs grey eyes 
 thanks Neal for his timely, if brusque, 
 intervention ; then she says quietly : 
 
 ^^I think you must have seen my poor 
 old father, Capt. Sabreur; he generally 
 comes in about this time." 
 
 Beau Sabreur mutters an incoherent 
 apology, whilst Lady Corraghmore witli 
 quick kindness says : 
 
 ^^ Would you allow me to make your 
 father's acquaintance, dear child ? Or 
 would it bore him to see me ? "
 
 206 KILCORRAN. 
 
 '' Oh ! not in the least," answers Lil, 
 ^^but he won't know you, I fear; he 
 knows no one." 
 
 As they leave the room the door 
 remains ajar, and those remaining within 
 it cannot refrain from listening to the 
 conversation with the old man which goes 
 on in the porch outside. 
 
 ^^ Father, this is my friend, Lady 
 Corraghmore," says Lil's clear voice. 
 
 << My girl, my girl, — do you know 
 my girl?" and Herbert Fane peers in- 
 quisitively up into Lady Corraghm ore's 
 face. 
 
 The latter tries hard not to shudder, 
 and answers kindly that '' she is very 
 pleased to have made his daughter's 
 acquaintance since their recent return to
 
 ''POOR jack:' 207 
 
 Corraghmore, and hopes she may come 
 often in the future to see them there." 
 
 ^^ Oh ! aye," mutters the old man, 
 ^^My girl, my girl. But you should see 
 Jack, poor Jack ! They say he'll be in 
 soon, that he's only gone out for a bit; 
 you'll stay and see Jack?" and a shaky 
 hand is laid imploringly on Lady Cor- 
 raghmore' s dress. 
 
 '* Oh ! yes," says the latter hurriedly, 
 answering to a hasty signal from Lil. 
 
 '^ He's often away now whole nights 
 together," continues the old man in a 
 whimpering tone, ^^ and they won't let me 
 go out to find him. But I'll go out one of 
 these nights yet," he adds with an in- 
 coherent, soulless laugh, ''- and then we'll 
 see if I can't find him ! Though it must
 
 208 KILCORRAN, 
 
 be when my girl's asleep and every one 
 else asleep too, and no one moving and 
 awake but the trees and flowers and 
 myself. Quite dark it must be, —quite, 
 quite dark! You won't tell them that 
 I'm going some day to find Jack, will 
 you?" he asks anxiously; and Lady 
 Corraghmore's eyes fill with tears as she 
 thinks it may come true enough, that 
 some day he also will die as his poor old 
 dog died — simply a soulless body, without 
 knowledge or thought to the very last. 
 
 *^ Poor child, what a sad home for 
 you ! " says Lady Corraghmore, putting 
 an arm affectionately round Lil, as they 
 return to the morning-room together a 
 few minutes later, where a certain gloom 
 caused by the distant and incoherent 
 sounds of the last conversation, seems to
 
 ''POOR JACKr 209 
 
 have spread over every one of its 
 occupants. 
 
 But in a very few minutes it is speed- 
 ily forgotten, as Lil's gay sallies keep the 
 whole party bright and merry, and the 
 most delicious of tea and tea-cakes go the 
 round perpetually. 
 
 ^^ My dear, you will come to our dance 
 next week ? Thursday it is, you know ? " 
 says Lady Corraghmore, rising to g;o 
 at last, and kissing Lil's fresh young 
 face. 
 
 ^^ Indeed I will gladly. Lady Corragh- 
 more ! " and Lil looks enchanted at the 
 very prospect. 
 
 ^'I'll leave the dress at your house on 
 
 Wednesday evening, on the way up to 
 
 my own," remarks Neal in a low voice to 
 
 Miss Fane; ^^ and trust me to select it 
 VOL. I. 14
 
 210 KILCORRAN. 
 
 most carefully, and to follow your written 
 instructions to the letter. Good night. 
 
 *^ Good night — and I rely on you 
 with perfect confidence," returns Lil laugh- 
 ingly. And as her visitors go slowly away 
 from the door, the sound of her gay clear 
 laugh mingles strangely with a whim- 
 pering wail resounding from the open 
 window of the dining-room. 
 
 ^^ When will he come in to see me 
 again ? Oh ! Jack, Jack ! He's out in 
 the dark and the cold, and I mayn't go 
 out to him, — and he's so lonely! Poor 
 Jack, poor Jack ! "
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 " The loves and hours of the life of a man, 
 They are swift and sad, being born of the sea ; 
 Hours that rejoice and regret for a span, 
 Born with a man's breath, mortal as he. 
 
 * 4lt It * * 
 
 I lose what I long for, save what I can, 
 My love, my love, and no love for me ! " 
 
 The Triumph or Time.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FORTUNE DOES NOT CHANGE THE RACE. 
 
 T is Wednesday evening, the 
 night before the dance at 
 Corraghraore, and Lil's dress 
 has not yet arrived. For the twentieth 
 time since dinner has she rushed to 
 the hall door, thinking she heard the 
 sound of distant wheels, and trying to 
 recollect whether trains ever reached 
 the small station of Strahull, ten miles , 
 away, so late in the day as this; and if 
 so whether Neal Trench will really not
 
 214 KILCORRAN. 
 
 forget to leave her dress at the River 
 House as he passes. 
 
 It is past ten o'clock when the sound 
 of wheels at the hall door bring Lil out 
 once more, to receive with her own hands 
 the precious card-board box which has 
 been the cause of so much anxiety. And 
 yet now that she sees it being lifted out of 
 the back of NeaPs dog-cart by his servant, 
 with her very own eyes, she scarcely 
 glances at it after all, and holds up a 
 hand to Mr. Trench with a frank speech 
 of welcome. But the usually gay clear 
 voice trembles slightly, and the little 
 hand is snatched away quickly, as if 
 fearful of its betraying some hidden 
 weakness. 
 
 ^' Won't you look at me, Lil, when
 
 FORTUNE DOES NOT CHANGE THE RACE. 215 
 
 you say ' thank you ' ? Though why 
 you should thank me at all passes my 
 imagination ? " 
 
 '' Because my box must have been a 
 great bother to you on the journey, not 
 to say the agony of mind it must have 
 cost you to choose the dress in the 
 first place?" and Lil tries to laugh off 
 the strange feeling of half nervousness 
 which has come over her for no ap- 
 parent cause, as the dark face bends 
 down from the dog-cart to look into 
 hers. 
 
 '^ This beast of a horse won't stand 
 still," says Neal Trench, ^^ so I suppose I 
 may as well be going on ; especially as 
 you ought to be in bed and asleep, pre- 
 vious to your to-morrow night's exertions.
 
 216 KILCORRAN. 
 
 But Lil,— woa! you brute! — you'll pro- 
 mise me a lot of valses to-morrow night ? 
 You won't forget ? " 
 
 ^^No, I shan't forget," answers Lillis 
 Fane slowly. 
 
 ^^ Well, good night ! I suppose I had 
 better be off;" and as the horse starts, 
 wath an impatient plunge into his collar, 
 Neal turns round and takes one last look 
 at the little white figure shining out from 
 tlie dark, shadowed side of the house, with 
 the beams of a glorious harvest moon 
 lighting up her pale sw^eet face and the 
 coils of her golden hair. 
 
 He drives along on his way home in a 
 frame of mind scarcely submissive to fate 
 in general ; and the good bay horse finds 
 himself indulged in going at a pace which
 
 FORTUNE DOES NOT CHANGE THE RACE. 217 
 
 he is seldom allowed to on these rough 
 hilly roads. But tear along as he will, 
 his master cannot shake off the wild, 
 miserable thoughts which are maddening 
 him. 
 
 To-morrow he must meet his betrothed 
 bride, bonnie Janet Airlie, and must be 
 all in all to her, — though every pulse of 
 his heart, he knows too well, beats only for 
 sweet Lil Fane. 
 
 Far into the morning he sits over the 
 wood fire in the big oak hall at Kilcorran, 
 smoking cigar after cigar, as is the fashion 
 of the sterner sex when perturbed in 
 spirit, — and he tries to see light where no 
 light is. Janet Airlie's comely, fair 
 Scotch face rises before him; and, if he 
 has never felt any very violent love, still
 
 218 KILCORRAN. 
 
 he has always had a very deep affection 
 for her, and feels the reverence and re- 
 spect that any one must feel for a nature 
 so singularly remarkable for honest loving- 
 kindness as hers. He recalls the day 
 when he asked her to be his wife, after all j 
 his friends had urged him not to throw 
 away the chance of marrying a girl who 
 was a richly endowed heiress, and charm- 
 ing as well. And how soon he learnt to 
 like and respect her, and to feel perfectly 
 happy in his choice ; and how cheerily 
 and easily the first three months of their 
 engagement had glided by, until he had 
 come over to Ireland to see his old home 
 once more — and so Lil Fane had crossed 
 his path ! The very thought of her sends 
 the blood surging wildly to his heart, and
 
 FORTUNE DOES NOT CHANGE THE RACE. 219 
 
 he almost groans aloud as he realizes that 
 his whole life's love is in the scale on the 
 one handj and ^^ barren honour" alone on 
 the other, — and that the latter must out- 
 weigh the former, let the price be what it 
 may ! 
 
 *^ I must go away," he mutters — ^' Pm 
 afraid for the child's sake ; and she shall 
 not know a day or an hour's suffering if I 
 can help it. And yet it's folly to dream 
 of her caring for me ! " Even as he 
 speaks, the memory of her little pale face, 
 looking so strangely troubled in the moon- 
 light, by the door of the River House that 
 very evening, comes across him, and he 
 buries his face in his hands with a low cry 
 of, ^^My darling, my darling, it's so hard 
 to give you up ! ''
 
 220 KILCORRAN. 
 
 As he raises his head once more, his 
 eye is cau<^ht by the carved scroll above 
 the great wide fire-place, on which stands 
 out his old family motto in bold relief : 
 ^^ God for the Trenches, who shall be 
 against them ? " 
 
 ^' Fate is, anyway," he says to him- 
 self with a dreary laugh ; and, throwing 
 his last cigar-end into the fire, sits down 
 then and there to write all necessary 
 letters, and make every arrangement for 
 his departure from Ireland on the morrow 
 of the dance at Corraghmore. 
 
 Meanwhile Lillis Fane is standing at 
 her window in the River House, watching 
 the flicker of the moonbeams on the Rhua 
 as it hurries past, and thinking how weird 
 and full of unrest was their silver light as
 
 FORTUNE DOES NOT CHANGE THE RACE. 221 
 
 it danced along. What ails her, she won- 
 ders, that everything seems to be in a 
 dream to-night, and her heart and head 
 ache and burn feverishly ! And she had 
 not said half of all the grateful speeches 
 she had meant to have, this evening, when 
 Neal brought her her dress. How kind 
 and good he was, and how quite different 
 to every one else ! 'Would Janet Air lie 
 be all she expected, and nice enough for 
 him, she wondered ; and strange to say, a 
 sob burst forth from the little miserable, 
 desolate heart, which was still too loyal to 
 both its friend and self to see its wreck 
 coming step by step nearer ! 
 
 A bright light shines out at this mo- 
 ment from the hill above. It is streaming 
 out at the unclosed window of the great
 
 222 KILCORRAN. 
 
 hall at Kilcorran, where the owner of the 
 old place sits fighting out face to face the 
 weary, time-honoured strife between love 
 and honour, before which so many in this 
 world go down. 
 
 As if the light on the hill above 
 brought a ray of brightness to her heart 
 and mind as well as to the gloom of 
 the night, Lil Fane shakes off all sad 
 thoughts and betakes herself to bed, to 
 dream of the coming dance and the 
 '^ all white" dress whose beauties are 
 to be displayed as soon as morning 
 light comes. 
 
 Very early was ^^Shusy" summoned 
 to her young mistress's room, and as soon 
 as the latter's toilette was completed all 
 but her dress, the box was solemnly
 
 FORTUNE DOES NOT CHANGE THE RACE. 223 
 
 opened in breathless silence, and the ball- 
 dress carefully lifted out. 
 
 *^ Oh ! — oh ! — OH ! " cries Lil, clapping 
 her hands, and dancing with delight. 
 
 ^^ Begorra, an' ye'll look like a blessed 
 angel in this beautiful white dress, Miss 
 Lil ! An' deed it's good taste Misther 
 Neal has, bless him ; though it's jist 
 quare to see one of thim hoigh and 
 moighty Trenches puttin' thimselves about 
 to go and buy finery an' the likes o' 
 that ! jist to plaze a slip of a girl, 
 machree ! " And shrewd old ^^ Shusy " 
 glances sharply at her mistress as she 
 concludes her speech. 
 
 But the latter has already got the 
 ball-dress over her head, and is too busy 
 in examining every plait and fold of that
 
 224 KILCORRAN. 
 
 garment to either hear or heed her ancient 
 handmaiden's observation. 
 
 It's a pretty dress enough, and the 
 smart young lady at Messrs. Marshall and 
 Snelgrove's had been quite worthy of the 
 confidence which Neal Trench had re- 
 posed in her, when he left the selection 
 of the dress entirely in her hands, only 
 bargaining that it was to be ^' all white." 
 It was chiefly composed of some light, 
 shimmering material that might have 
 been worn by the Fairy Queen herself, 
 whilst sprays of white acacia flowers orna- 
 mented it here and there. Lil took a 
 good look at herself in the glass, holding 
 up a spare spray of acacia to the side of 
 her head the while, and then nodded 
 gravely to her own reflection, and said :
 
 FORTUNE DOES NOT CHANGE THE RACE. 225 
 
 ^^ You'll do!" 
 
 ^^ A purtier young lady and a purtier 
 dress there won't be at Corraghmore the 
 night, mavourneen ! " burst out Shusy, 
 moving a yard or two back and setting 
 her arms akimbo, the better to study the 
 view of both at her leisure. "• There's 
 Pether O'Flaherty, down there at Father 
 Donally's, ye know, whom I jist came 
 acrass last evenin', and says he : ' Shusy,' 
 says he, ' will your young misthress be 
 goin' to the line ball at his honour's to- 
 morrow noight ? ' 
 
 ^'^And why shouldn't she?' says I, 
 
 ' av coorse she'll be goin', says I. Says 
 
 he, ' Jist ye tell her from me thin, that 
 
 she may eat and drink as much as she 
 
 likes there, and sorra a bit of harrm 
 VOL. I. 15
 
 226 KILCORRAN. 
 
 will it do her/ says he — ^ though liquors 
 at balls is mostly very desateful ! ' says 
 he." 
 
 " I'ra much obliged to Mr. O'Flaherty 
 for the care he takes of my constitution," 
 laughed Lil. ^^ But we must work hard 
 now, Shusy, to do the alterations wanted 
 in the fit of this dress, else it'll never 
 be ready in time." 
 
 ^^ Arrah, darlint, don't fret yerself ! 
 Shure yer not goin' to start for this ball 
 till it's jist toime for all dacent Christians 
 to be in bed ! " 
 
 ^^ Yes, but Sir Derrick is going to send 
 a carriage for me, and I don't want to 
 keep it waiting a moment." 
 
 ^^ Arrah, be aisy now, Miss Lil ! An' 
 me soul on it but the dress' 11 be ready
 
 FORTUNE DOES NOT CHANGE THE RACE, 227 
 
 long before ye want to put it on ! " and 
 Shusy wisely beats a retreat to avoid 
 further argument on the subject with her 
 impatient little mistress.
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 '^ Before our lives divide for ever, 
 While time is with us and hands are free, 
 ^ » ♦ * ♦ 
 
 I will say no word that a man might say 
 Whose whole life's love goes down in a day ; 
 For this could never have been ; and never, 
 Though the gods and the years relent, shall be." 
 
 The Triumph of Time.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BAREEN HONOUR. 
 
 OEEAGHMOEE that evening 
 was one blaze of lights, as car- 
 riage after carriage drove up to 
 the door and deposited their freight, and 
 then wound in and out of the shrubbery 
 on their way to the stables, their lamps 
 looking like gigantic fire-flies disappearing 
 into the distance. 
 
 All up each side of the large staircase 
 leading out of the hall were arranged 
 coloured lamps, midst rows of ferns and 
 other plants, and every spare corner of
 
 232 KILCORRAN, 
 
 the passages and landings were decorated 
 with all the flowers which the nursery 
 gardens of the county town could supply ; 
 so that, in looking up from the great 
 hall below, which was also the ball-room, 
 one could see nothing but a forest of 
 green, lit up with red, white, and blue 
 lights, disappearing gradually up the 
 staircase. 
 
 An entrance for the guests had been 
 made through the billiard-room of the 
 house, which in its turn communicated 
 with the large drawing-room and sundry 
 lesser rooms (the latter fitted up with 
 comfortable sofas and chairs a deux^ 
 artistically placed by Beau Sabreur). In 
 spite of the scarcity of neighbours round 
 Corraghmore, some eighty people were 
 collected together there ; about twenty of
 
 BARREN HONOUR. 233 
 
 tliem being the house party, and another 
 ten being supplied by a cavalry regiment 
 stationed fifteen miles off, for whom Sir 
 Derrick had found bachelor's lodgings in 
 all the principal houses in his village — a 
 large omnibus being especially engaged 
 to ply between that and the big house. 
 
 Lil Fane arrives early, and when she 
 enters the drawing-room no one is there 
 except the house party, so she has plenty 
 of time to make her observations on the 
 latest additions to that circle. 
 
 A tall fair woman with bonnie blue 
 eyes, dressed in black, and with diamond 
 stars in her dark red hair, comes over to 
 the sofa where Lil is sitting, and takes 
 the place beside her. 
 
 '' I want you to tell me who every 
 one is as they come in; will you, Miss
 
 234 KILCORRAN. 
 
 Fane ? For I'm a stranger in these parts, 
 and it's so much nicer if one can know 
 some of the people by sight and name; 
 isn't it?" 
 
 ^^ Yes, of course it is," answers Lil 
 with her bright frank smile, — ^^ and I too 
 shall be so glad to have some one to talk 
 to, because this is the first ball I ever was 
 at, so there's not likely to be much com- 
 petition for the honour of dancing with 
 me, I expect ! " 
 
 ^^ Don't be too sure of that! I see a 
 young man with a cast in his eye who 
 I'm sure is looking at you with the pro- 
 foundest admiration ! " 
 
 '-^ Oh ! no, he isn't," laughs Lil, — ^^ it's 
 Captain Gauger, in the Irish Police ; and 
 he's looking at that pretty little fat white 
 girl. Miss Brady, ten yards to my left.
 
 BARREN HONOUR. 235 
 
 You don't know liis squint as well as I 
 do!" 
 
 ^^ Well, there's a tall, thin curate^ 
 standing with his back against the door, 
 who looks as if he could dance all night ; 
 is he a friend of yours ? " 
 
 *^No; he belongs to the five Miss 
 Browns — those girls with flaxen hair sit- 
 ting just opposite to us — and they couldn't 
 spare him for a minute," answers Lil 
 regretfully. 
 
 *^ Well, but you know Mr. Trench' 
 don't you? He's sure to dance with 
 you." 
 
 *^0h! yes, quite sure. He asked me 
 days ago ! " and Lillis Fane's eyes 
 brighten involuntarily. 
 
 Her companion gives her a keen, 
 comprehensive glance, which seems to
 
 23G KILCORRAN. 
 
 read every thought in the girl's niind. 
 LiPs praises have been loudly sung by 
 almost every one in the house, but only 
 one person has thrown out dark hints 
 concerning Neal Trench's apparently 
 strong devotion to her, and that has 
 been the Lady Bella. 
 
 ^^ You like Mr. Trench, don't you?" 
 and the bonnie blue eyes have a slightly 
 haughty look in them as the question is 
 asked. 
 
 Lil's fearless grey ones meet those of 
 her companion unflinchingly, and she 
 answers simply : 
 
 '^ I like him better than any one in 
 the world, except my father and ' Ernest. 
 He's been so good and kind to me, you 
 can't think. He first got Lady Corragh- 
 more to ask me here — at least so Lady
 
 BARREN HONOUR. 237 
 
 Bella says ; and do you know, I should 
 not wonder if he even had persuaded 
 them all to ask me here to-night. And 
 if I enjoy the ball at all, it'll only be 
 that he is kinder than any one else in 
 asking me to dance and making me like 
 it." 
 
 There is a few moments' silence, and 
 then Lil says : 
 
 '^I want so much to know which is 
 Miss Airlie. Do you know her ? " 
 
 *^Yes," answers her companion with 
 an amused smile. ^' But why do you 
 want to see her ? " 
 
 ^^ I want to know if she's half good 
 enough for him ! " and a feverish flush 
 passes over the girl's face as she speaks, 
 though the light fades out of her eyes. 
 
 '^Well, she's nearer thirty than
 
 233 KILCORRAN. 
 
 twenty, and has red hair," replies LiPs 
 companion. 
 
 ^^ril never believe it!" exclaims the 
 latter indignantly. ^^ Why, he has often 
 told me what was his beau-ideal of a wife, 
 and she never was more than eighteen ! " 
 
 ^^ Perhaps she hadn't red hair either ? " 
 
 ^^No, I ihink he said golden." 
 
 ^' And what colom^ed eyes? Not blue 
 by any chance ? " 
 
 ^^Oh! no, I know it wasn't blue. I 
 forget what was the colour he said, but 
 I'm quite sure it wasn't blue." 
 
 A grave look is on the face of Lil's 
 companion, but she recovers herself 
 quickly, and says : 
 
 '-''I am Janet Airlie, Miss Fane. So 
 you see how little I come up to the
 
 BARREN HONOUR. 239 
 
 standard of Neal Trench's ideal ! " she 
 adds bitterly. 
 
 ^^ Are you Miss Airlie? Oh! I am so 
 glad!" and Lil looks joyfully at the 
 comely fair face beside her. '^ I liked 
 you so all the time you were talking, for 
 you talked so honest and true, — and. I'm 
 so glad it's you he is going to marry, and 
 no one else ! " 
 
 The words come out kindly and 
 frankly, but the girl's heart is failing her 
 for fear, and an unknown weakness is 
 stealing all strength from her. 
 
 At this moment Neal Trench enters 
 the room, which is already becoming 
 rapidly Crowded; and the first vision 
 which greets his eyes is the two women, 
 whose rival claims on his heart have cost
 
 240 KILCORRAN. 
 
 him so many sleepless hours, sitting to 
 gether on the same sofa in most amicable 
 converse. 
 
 It takes some pluck at any time to 
 march straight up to the object of one's 
 affections in a room where the eyes of the 
 public are upon one; but when the posi- 
 tion is further complicated by there being 
 tioo objects of one's affections, — legitimate 
 and illegitimate, — the situation becomes 
 almost tragic. So thinks Neal Trench, 
 and his customary insouciance begins ra- 
 pidly to give way before a manly terror 
 of petticoats. But rescue comes in the 
 person of Captain Sabreur, who, as the 
 first notes of the ^'Doctrinen" valse re- 
 sounded from the hall outside, plunged 
 boldly across a sea of tarlatanes, muslins, 
 silks, and satins, and requested Miss Fane
 
 BARREN HO NO UR. 241 
 
 to honour him by dancing the first valse 
 with him. 
 
 Miss FanKG, who is dying to dance, but 
 who in her heart is sadly afraid that no 
 one will think of asking her, accepts him 
 as a partner with outward dignity but 
 with inward rapture ; and they are soon 
 sailing round the large hall in a quiet, 
 easy irois-temps, on the perfection of which 
 Beau Sabreur especially prides himself. 
 
 '^ I like getting a good long turn while 
 the other people are making up their 
 minds if they will, or can, dance at all; 
 don't you? " observes Sabreur as they pull 
 up for a moment's rest. 
 
 ^' Yes," answers Lil vaguely, her eyes 
 
 following the figures of Neal Trench and 
 
 Janet Airlie, as they both also enter the 
 
 hall and dance ofE together. 
 
 VOL. I. 16
 
 242 KILCORRAN. 
 
 '^Trench goes too slow, doesn't he?" 
 jDursues her companion. ^^ Those long 
 stwides of his must tire \\\^ partner to 
 death. But gwacious Heavens, Miss 
 Fane! who is this old lady alongside 
 of us so tastefully attired in tartan silk 
 and with half a vinery on her head ? " 
 
 Before Lil can reply, the lady in the 
 tartan confronts Captain Sabreur with a 
 beaming smile and an insinuating shake 
 of the shade, which sets the bunches of 
 grapes decorating her cap all in a quiver. 
 
 ^^ Ah ! now. Cap tin', an' don't ye 
 remimber me thin? Shure I'm jist 
 Misthress Brady of Bally mount, whom 
 ye helped to taties at luncheon in this 
 very house, the day of the school-feast ! 
 An' this is me darter. Miss Juliana Brady. 
 Juliana, me love, — the Captin' ! — Miss
 
 BARREN HONOUR. 243 
 
 Brady ! She dances ^beautifully does me 
 darter, Cap tin' ! " 
 
 The ^^Hard Cases" in Vanity Fair 
 could have been nothing to the problem 
 which Captain Sabreur is called upon to 
 solve, as to ''what a fellah should do,'^ 
 etc., but he proves himself equal to the 
 occasion by answering : 
 
 ''Weally? I don't doubt it, Mrs. 
 Bwady, and can only regwet that I am 
 engaged for the next dance." 
 
 '' May be you'll be wan tin' a partner 
 for the one afther, thin ? " inquires the 
 undaunted wearer of the tartan and 
 grapes. 
 
 ''Weally, you do me too much 
 honour. Haw ! — but the fact is my con- 
 stitution is vewy delicate, and I have to 
 west a good deal between dancing. I'm
 
 244 KILCORRAN. 
 
 not wobust I " murmurs Beau Sabreur in a 
 plaintive tone. 
 
 ^^ It's mockin' me ye are, Captin'. 
 Sliure I never saw a finer, healthier young 
 man! An' ye say ye are not sthrong? 
 Deed, an' ye ought to be jist thankful 
 that ye're not ! Look at meself now, — 
 I'm sthrong I — and whenever I'm ill and 
 go to the say, the docthor says to me, 
 says he : ^ no batliin' in the say, no hot 
 lunchins or bottled stout, and no butther- 
 ed toast at tay, Misthress Brady ! — Fills^ 
 Misthress Brady,' says he ; a pill now and 
 a pill thin, a pill here and a pill there, an' 
 its jist pills mornin', noon, and night, 
 Captin' ! Deed, an ye'd betther not to 
 feel sthrong if that's all the good it does 
 ye!" ■
 
 BARREN HONOUR. 245 
 
 *^ Come on quick," says Captain Sa- 
 breur to his partner, ^^ Heaven only knows 
 what the woman will say next ! " And 
 the beaming Mrs. Brady is left standing 
 disconcerted. 
 
 Meantime Miss Airlie and Neal Trench 
 had taken a few turns round the ball- 
 room, and then had sat down on a sofa in 
 a secluded corner of it, to have a quiet 
 talk. Even as he did so the evil thought 
 crossed Mr. Trench's mmd, that the fact 
 of having a right to sit on any sofa with a 
 young woman, before the eyes of the 
 assembled multitude, seemed entirely to 
 take away the zest of the proceeding. 
 
 After numerous questions and answers 
 on sundry indifferent -subjects, Janet 
 Airlie looked across the room, her eyes
 
 246 KILCORRAN. 
 
 taking the same direction as those of her 
 partner, and quietly remarked : 
 
 '^ What a striking face Miss Fane's is, 
 Neal." 
 
 ^' Yes, very," answered he ; and the 
 woman of the world could read a good 
 deal in the simple fact that his eyes 
 turned hurriedly away from Lillis Fane's 
 face as he spoke, instead of resting there 
 calmly as would have been natural when 
 any given face was under discussion. 
 
 '^ I made her acquaintance just now, 
 and she seems perfectly charming," con- 
 tinued Miss Airlie. ^^ Does she live near 
 you, and do you see much of her ? " 
 
 ^^ No, not much." (Measured by his 
 own wishes on that subject, this was 
 strictly true.) ^^ But I know her well too, 
 somehow. She's got such a frank, half-
 
 BARREN HONOUR. "1^1 
 
 childish, half-womanly manner, that one 
 seems to know her better than one really 
 does, I think." 
 
 ^^And — ^you like her?" The bonnie 
 blue eyes were looking steadily at him 
 now. 
 
 ^^ Yes, I like her very much," an- 
 swered Neal quietly, — wondering in his 
 heart whether his voice sounded as coldly 
 indifferent as he hoped. 
 
 Janet Airlie sat by his side some few 
 minutes longer, with a grave look on her 
 usually blithe comely face, and then rose 
 to dance in obedience to a mandate from 
 Sir Derrick himself, with whom she was 
 a great favourite. But several times 
 during tlie remainder of the evening Neal 
 met her eyes quietly watching him, with 
 the same kindly but grave look in them
 
 548 KILCORRAN, 
 
 which they had worn while she had sat 
 and talked to him of Lillis Fane. 
 
 More than half the night is over, but 
 still the dancing continues fast and 
 furious. Many have been the demands 
 for Miss Fane's hand in the mazy dance, 
 and she is now sitting alone on the 
 secluded sofa before mentioned, near the 
 stairs, wondering whether the wide rent 
 that her last partner has made in the 
 train of her dress is worth having mended 
 at once or not. 
 
 ^^ Not quite spoilt, I hope ? " asks a 
 well-known voice, and Neal Trench takes 
 the seat beside her, — feeling acutely as 
 he does so, that the zest which had been 
 wanting on the first occasion of his sitting 
 on that sofa, is made up for now with a 
 vengeance.
 
 BARREN HONOUR. 249 
 
 ^^ Oh ! no, only torn," returns Lil. 
 ^^ I should be crying my eyes out if it 
 had been really spoilt, for it's the prettiest 
 dress I have ever had. Thanks chiefly 
 to yourself for choosing it." 
 
 ^^ Oh ! I did very little towards that," 
 says Mr. Trench, conscious that it would 
 be really too gross a falsehood to allow 
 himself to accept this bit of praise. ^^ But 
 I told them the colour; or rather, th^t 
 there was not to be any colour about it at 
 all. You look perfect in white, Lil ! " 
 he adds ; and a wild idea crosses his brain 
 of how lovely she would look dressed as a 
 bride. 
 
 ^^Do I? I'm very glad. Neal, I've 
 made acquaintance with Miss Airlie." 
 
 '^ So she told me. Well, what do you 
 think of Janet ? "
 
 250 KILCORRAN, 
 
 ^^ I think she has got ahiiost the nicest 
 face I ever saw. It's so really ^ bonnie ! ' 
 I can't describe it any other way." 
 
 ^^ I know what you mean. Yes, she 
 has a charming expression. I never saw 
 the child that wouldn't run to her, or the 
 animal that wouldn't take to her ; she's the 
 very soul of kindness to every one, high 
 or low ; and has that very rare character- 
 istic in a woman — perfect honesty. She 
 deserves a better fate than hers ! " 
 
 ^^ What better fate could she have than 
 to be young, good-looking, and rich, and 
 to be going to marry the man she 
 wishes ? " asks Lil. And her fingers twist 
 themselves in and out of each other with a 
 movement that brings vividly to mind 
 those of a person suffering, some great 
 pain.
 
 BARREN HONOUR, 251 
 
 ^^Your fate is the same as hers, Lil ! 
 Are you quite happy, child ? " 
 
 Twice she struggles to give an evasive 
 answer, but the deep grey eyes looking 
 into her own compel her with a strange 
 power to speak the truth. 
 
 ^^No," she answers sadly; and the 
 little pale face waxes whiter than before. 
 
 There is a long silence, and the band 
 begins to play the opening notes of that 
 most beautiful of all valses — the ^^ Blue 
 Danube," — and a few early couples begin 
 their gyrations round the hall. 
 
 ^^ Come uj)-stairs to Lady Corragh- 
 more's boudoir, Lil," says Neal abruptly. 
 '-'- 1 want to speak to you." 
 
 Without a word, Lillis Fane rises and 
 takes his arm, and together they mount 
 the stairs and reach the well-lit, comfort-
 
 252 KILCORRAN, 
 
 able little sitting-room especially reserved 
 to the lady of the house; but where 
 public five o'clock tea has been held every 
 afternoon since the preparations for the 
 ball have made a general chaos of all the 
 chambers down-stairs. 
 
 They both stand before the fire, watch- 
 ing the flames as they flicker up and then 
 die out, until Neal breaks the silence and 
 says: 
 
 *^Lil, I've brought you here because I 
 couldn't say good-bye before them all, but 
 it must be, child ! I am going away to- 
 morrow for months, perhaps years." 
 
 '^ Going away! and for always!" 
 The hands are clenched now with an iron 
 grip, but the eyes look up as brave and 
 resolute as ever. ^^ Why are you going so 
 suddenly, Neal ? "
 
 BARREN HONOUR. 253 
 
 ^^ Because it's best for you and best for 
 me! I did not mean you to know how 
 much I cared for you, darlmg, but it's too 
 strong for me ! And for the first and last 
 time I tell you to-night : that I love you 
 as never man loved before! My own, I 
 would lay down my life to save you one 
 instant's sorrow, and yet I am not un- 
 selfish enough to go away for ever 
 without longing to know whether you 
 care for me a little bit too ! Do you, 
 darling ? " 
 
 *^ Yes ! " — but the reply breaks forth 
 from a face hidden between tightly 
 clenched hands, and an answer less like 
 a maiden's ^^ yea," was never heard ! 
 
 Now does Lillis Fane realize what had 
 been the unknown strain of music heard 
 in her far off dreams, which had seemed
 
 254 KILCORRAN. 
 
 to wake her very heart and soul ; but the 
 awakening has come too late ! 
 
 She sits crouched down in an arm- 
 chair before the fire, with her face still 
 buried in her hands ; and Neal Trench 
 feels as if his heart were breaking, at 
 sight of the proud little head cowering 
 low almost to the ground. He breaks out 
 wildly : 
 
 ^^ My darling, if I could but spare you 
 the pain ! Lil, I'm tempted to forget 
 honour and all things, and to ask you to 
 be mine and mine alone, at all costs and 
 hazards! Child! life shall be a perfect 
 paradise to you if you will come with me ? 
 How can I live with another woman day 
 after day, and hear nothing but ]joiir voice 
 ringing in my ears, and see your dear face 
 night after night in my dreams? And
 
 BARREN HONOUR. 255 
 
 you ! can you go to the altar and swear to 
 cleave only to another, when you are mine^ 
 heart and soul ? Answer me, darlmg ! say 
 you will be mine only ?" 
 
 Slowly the girl rises to her feet and 
 stands confronting him. She is as pale 
 as death, and her eyes have that look of 
 unspoken, unutterable pain, that one sees 
 in those of a dumb animal when wounded. 
 But the old proud, dauntless expression is 
 stronger than ever, and no shadow of 
 faltering is in the clear, brave voice : 
 
 ^^Neal! could I do what you ask, no 
 price would be too great to pay for it but 
 what I loould pay it willingly ! — But it's 
 no use. Honour muBt come before all else 
 in the world ! " 
 
 ^' Have you no mercy, Lil ? Are both 
 our lives to be wrecked because we have
 
 256 KILCORRAN. 
 
 each made a mistake in binding ourselves 
 where we had no right to do so ? For 
 God's sake, think of the misery that the 
 long years to come will bring to each of 
 us ! Don't decide now, darling ; think 
 it over once more ! " 
 
 ^^ All the thinking on earth could not 
 alter the fact that there is but one course 
 open to us, for simple honour's sake." 
 The words ring out bravely and true, 
 but the sweet grey eyes are growing 
 almost stern in their agony, and the 
 struggle is getting harder. 
 
 ^^ Darling, I cannot, will not let you 
 go ! — What is life worth to me without 
 you? You cannot care for me as I do 
 for you or you would not dream of the 
 possibility ! "
 
 BARREN HONOUR. 257 
 
 No answer, — only the expression 
 which crosses the pale, resolute little face 
 seems to say : ^' How long, oh God ! how 
 long?" 
 
 ^^ Lil, I want you so for my very own, 
 
 child ! " — and the dark face bends over 
 
 her, and she dares not look up to meet 
 
 the wild passionate tenderness in the deep 
 
 grey eyes. ^^I dreamt last night that I 
 
 was in the Far West once more, and that 
 
 I was standing on the edge of a glorious 
 
 sunlit lake in the wildest part of the Yo 
 
 Semite Valley, just under the great 
 
 North Dome Mountain, — and you were 
 
 by my side ! And we were far away 
 
 from all earthly troubles and sorrows ; 
 
 far away from friends and foes ; alone 
 
 and isolated, but together^ — and I dreamt 
 VOL. I. 17
 
 258 KILCORRAN. 
 
 that we were unutterably content and 
 happy ! Lil, why should not that dream 
 come true ? " 
 
 *' Because it cannot, and it must not," 
 and the girl's face lights up with the 
 power of one who has conquered in a sore 
 fight. ^'Neal, we have come across each 
 other too late, and in that our fate is sad 
 enough, but don't let us make it worse by 
 doing anything which could add reproach 
 as well as sorrow to what we shall have 
 to bear. How much that is, the long 
 years alone will tell us : I care for you 
 so much, that I would die a hundred 
 deaths sooner than know that you had 
 forfeited your honour for the sake of 
 marrying me! And, on my side, no 
 power on earth shall shake my deter- 
 mination to keep true to my given word.
 
 BARREN HONOUR. 259 
 
 and to help you to do the same. But, 
 Neal, I am very tired; have mercy on 
 me and don't try me harder, for if I failed 
 it would be the last day and hour of 
 happiness I should ever know! Neal, 
 you have been so kind and good to me, 
 do help me now, for God's sake ! " 
 
 There is a long deep silence, — in 
 which no sound is heard except the notes 
 of the ^^ Blue Danube" as they come peal- 
 ing up the staircase, — broken at last by 
 Neal Trench's voice, which sounds almost 
 harsh from very force of feeling. 
 
 ^^ Child, you have conquered ! I will 
 go away to-morrow, and we will not vol- 
 untarily meet again until we are both 
 married, and our lives have drifted far 
 apart from each other. I don't ask you 
 not to forget me, for we shall not easily
 
 260 KILCORRAN. 
 
 forget each other ! " and he laughs 
 drearily. ^' But oh ! my darling, give 
 me one kiss before I go, that it may stay 
 by me in all the long desolate future 
 years ! " 
 
 Their lips meet just once. ^' Let me 
 hear you say that you love me, Lil?" 
 and the man's voice is hoarse and low, 
 like one under torture. ^^ Tell me that 
 you love me as you will never again love 
 any one on earth or in heaven ! " 
 
 ^^ That is my punishment ! " is the 
 simple answer; and Lillis Fane goes 
 slowly to the door and passes away out 
 of his sight for many a weary day. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 CLAY AND TAYLOB, BUNGAY. S. A" ff. 
 
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