"Is there anything else I can do for you?" I asked.
"Yes," he said, "you're coming over to Ireland with me to-morrow."
"I'll see you hanged first," I said.
[Illustration: "HE LIT IT, AND DREW HIS FAVOURITE ARMCHAIR UP TO THE
HEARTH."]
"The train leaves Euston at 8.45 p.m."
"It can leave when it likes. I shan't be there."
"By eleven o'clock on Thursday we shall be in Stromore."
"Well?" I said, weakly.
"I knew you'd come!" he said.
"But I won't," I said.
He smiled tenderly upon me.
"And yet," he said, "I endured that dragon Mrs. Vivian for your sake for
full ten minutes."
"If you'll explain what it's all about," I said, "I'll do anything I can
to help you, but as to--"
He tapped me on the knee with the poker.
"Listen!" he said. "In my opinion, my cousin, Mrs. O'Callaghan, is mad."
"I'm not surprised to hear it," I said.
He tapped me again with the poker.
"My cousin, Mrs. O'Callaghan, has a daughter, and in any decent man's
home," he added, "there'd be something to drink Norah's health in."
I got up wearily and produced what was required, and we drank solemnly
to Norah O'Callaghan.
"That's better," said St. Alleyne. "Now Mrs. O'Callaghan has her heart
set on Norah's going into a convent, and Norah, poor child, thinks she
has a leaning towards the religious life, and that before she has seen
any other life at all. When I heard of this folly I went over, but never
a sight of the girl could I get except with her mother. The old woman
never lets her outside the grounds, and there they walk up and down for
an hour every day."