CHAPTER VIII

Fearless she had tracked his feet

To this rocky, wild retreat,

And when morning met his view,

Her mild glances met it too.

Ah! your saints have cruel hearts,

Sternly from his bed he starts,

And with rude, repulsive shock,

Hurls her from the beetling rock.--T. MOORE

The deed was done. Conventionalities were defied, vaunts fulfilled, and

Lucilla sat on a camp-stool on the deck of a steamer, watching the Welsh

mountains rise, grow dim, and vanish gradually.

Horatia, in common with all the rest of the womankind, was prostrate on

the cabin floor, treating Cilly's smiles and roses as aggravations of her

misery. Had there been a sharer in her exultation, the gay pitching and

dancing of the steamer would have been charming to Lucy, but when she

retreated from the scene of wretchedness below, she felt herself lonely,

and was conscious of some surprise among the surviving gentlemen at her

reappearance.

She took out a book as a protection, and read more continuously than she

had done since _Vanity Fair_ had come to the Holt, and she had been

pleased to mark Honora's annoyance at every page she turned.

But the July light faded, and only left her the poor amusement of looking

over the side for the phosphorescence of the water, and watching the

smoke of the funnel lose itself overhead. The silent stars and sparkling

waves would have set Phoebe's dutiful science on the alert, or

transported Honor's inward ear by the chant of creation, but to her they

were of moderate interest, and her imagination fell a prey to the memory

of the eyes averted, and hand withdrawn. 'I'll be exemplary when this is

over,' said she to herself, and at length her head nodded till she

dropped into a giddy doze, whence with a chilly start she awoke, as the

monotonous jog and bounce of the steamer were exchanged for a snort of

arrival, among mysterious lanes of sparkling lights apparently rising

from the waters.

She had slept just long enough to lose the lovely entrance of Dublin Bay,

stiffen her limbs, and confuse her brains, and she stood still as the

stream of passengers began to rush trampling by her, feeling bewildered

and forlorn. Her cousin's voice was welcome, though over-loud and

somewhat piteous. 'Where are you, stewardess? where's the young lady?

Oh! Cilly, there you are. To leave me alone all this time, and here's

the stewardess saying we must go ashore at once, or lose the train. Oh!

the luggage, and I've lost my plaid,' and ghastly in the lamplight, limp

and tottering, Rashe Charteris clasped her arm for support, and made her

feel doubly savage and bewildered. Her first movement was to enjoin

silence, then to gaze about for the goods. A gentleman took pity on the

two ladies, and told them not to be deluded into trying to catch the

train; there would be another in an hour's time, and if they had any one

to meet them, they would most easily be found where they were.

'We have no one--we are alone,' said Lucilla; and his chivalry was so far

awakened that he handed them to the pier, and undertook to find their

boxes. Rashe was absolutely subdued, and hung shivering and helpless on

her cousin, who felt as though dreaming in the strange scene of darkness

made visible by the bright circles round the lamps, across which rapidly

flitted the cloaked forms of travellers presiding over queer, wild,

caricature-like shapes, each bending low under the weight of trunk or

bag, in a procession like a magic lantern, save for the Babel of shrieks,

cries, and expostulations everywhere in light or gloom.

A bell rang, an engine roared and rattled off. 'The train!' sighed

Horatia; 'we shall have to stay here all night.'

'Nonsense,' said Lucy, ready to shake her; 'there is another in an hour.

Stay quiet, do, or he will never find us.'

'Porter, ma'am--porrterr--'

'No, no, thank you,' cried Lucilla, darting on her rod-case and

carriage-bag to rescue them from a freckled countenance with claws

attached.

'We shall lose everything, Cilla; that's your trusting to a stranger!'

'All right; thank you!' as she recognized her possessions, borne on

various backs towards the station, whither the traveller escorted them,

and where things looked more civilized. Ratia began to resume her

senses, though weak and hungry. She was sorely discomfited at having to

wait, and could not, like the seasoned voyagers, settle herself to repose

on the long leathern couches of the waiting-room, but wandered, woebegone

and impatient, scolding her cousin for choosing such an hour for their

passage, for her desertion and general bad management. The merry,

good-natured Rashe had disappeared in the sea-sick, cross, and weary

wight, whose sole solace was grumbling, but her dolefulness only made

Lucilla more mirthful. Here they were, and happen what would, it should

only be 'such fun.' Recovered from the moment's bewilderment, Lucy

announced that she felt as if she were at a ball, and whispered a

proposal of astonishing the natives by a polka in the great empty boarded

space. 'The suggestion would immortalize us; come!' And she threatened

mischievously to seize the waist of the still giddy and aching-headed

Horatia, who repulsed her with sufficient roughness and alarm to set her

off laughing at having been supposed to be in earnest.

The hurry of the train came at last; they hastened down-stairs and found

the train awaiting them, were told their luggage was safe, and after

sitting till they were tired, shot onwards watching the beautiful

glimpses of the lights in the ships off Kingstown. They would gladly

have gone on all night without another disembarkation and scramble, but

the Dublin station came only too soon; they were disgorged, and hastened

after goods. Forth came trunk and portmanteau. Alas! none of theirs!

Nothing with them but two carriage-bags and two rod-cases!

'It seems to be a common predicament,' said Lucilla; 'here are at least

half-a-dozen in the same case.'

'Horrible management. We shall never see it more.'

'Nay, take comfort in the general lot. It will turn up to-morrow; and

meantime sleep is not packed up in our boxes. Come, let's be off. What

noises! How do these drivers keep from running over one another. Each

seems ready to whip every one's beast but his own. Don't you feel

yourself in Ireland, Rashe? Arrah! I shall begin to scream too if I

stand here much longer.'

'We can't go in that thing--a fly!'

'Don't exist here, Rashe--vermin is unknown. Submit to your fate--' and

ere another objection could be uttered, Cilly threw bags and rods into an

inside car, and pushed her cousin after them, chattering all the time, to

poor Horatia's distraction. 'Oh! delicious! A cross between a baker's

cart and a Van Amburgh. A little more and it would overbalance and carry

the horse head over heels! Take care, Rashe; you'll pound me into dust

if you slip down over me.'

'I can't help it! Oh! the vilest thing in creation.'

'Such fun! To be taken when well shaken. Here we go up, up, up; and

here we go down, down, down! Ha! ware fishing-rod! This is what it is

to travel. No one ever described the experiences of an inside car!'

'Because no one in their senses would undergo such misery!'

'But you don't regard the beauties, Rashe, beauties of nature and art

combined--see the lights reflected in the river--what a width. Oh! why

don't they treat the Thames as they do the Liffey?'

'I can't see, I shall soon be dead! and getting to an inn without

luggage, it's not respectable.'

'If you depart this life on the way, the want of luggage will concern me

the most, my dear. Depend on it, other people have driven up in inside

cars, minus luggage, in the memory of man, in this City of Dublin. Are

you such a worldling base as to depend for your respectability on a

paltry leathern trunk?'

Lucilla's confidence did not appear misplaced, for neither waiters nor

chambermaids seemed surprised, but assured them that people usually

missed their luggage by that train, and asseverated that it would appear

next morning.

Lucilla awoke determined to be full of frolic and enjoyment, and Horatia,

refreshed by her night's rest, was more easily able to detect 'such fun'

than on the previous night; so the two cousins sat down amicably to

breakfast on the Sunday morning, and inquired about church-services.

'My mallard's tail hat is odd "go to meeting" head-gear,' said Cilla,

'but one cannot lapse into heathenism; so where, Rashe?'

'Wouldn't it be fun to look into a Roman Catholic affair?'

'No,' said Cilly, decidedly; 'where I go it shall be the genuine article.

I don't like curiosities in religion.'

'It's a curiosity to go to church at twelve o'clock! If you are so

orthodox, let us wait for St. Patrick's this afternoon.'

'And in the meantime? It is but eleven this minute, and St. Patrick's is

not till three. There's nothing to be done but to watch Irish nature in

the street. Oh! I never before knew the perfection of Carleton's

illustration. See that woman and her cap, and the man's round eyebrows

and projecting lips with shillelagh written on them. Would it be

Sabbath-breaking to perpetrate a sketch?'

But as Ratia was advancing to the window, Lucy suddenly started back,

seized her and whirled her away, crying, 'The wretch! I know him now! I

could not make him out last night.'

'Who?' exclaimed Rashe, starting determinedly to the window, but detained

by the two small but resolute hands clasped round her waist.

'That black-whiskered valet of Mr. Calthorp's. If that man has the

insolence to dog me and spy me, I'll not stay in Ireland another day.'

'Oh, what fun!' burst out Horatia. 'It becomes romantic!'

'Atrocious impertinence!' said Lucilla, passionately. 'Why do you stand

there laughing?'

'At you, my dear,' gasped Ratia, sinking on the sofa in her spasm of

mirth. 'At your reception of chivalrous devotion.'

'Pretty chivalry to come and spy and beset ladies alone.'

'He has not beset us yet. Don't flatter yourself!'

'What do you mean by that, Horatia?'

'Do you want to try your pistols on me? The waiter could show us the way

to the Fifteen Acres, only you see it is Sunday.'

'I want,' said Lucy, all tragedy and no comedy, 'to know why you talk of

my _flattering_ myself that I am insulted, and my plans upset.'

'Why?' said Rashe, a little sneeringly. 'Why, a little professed beauty

like you would be so disappointed not to be pursued, that she is obliged

to be always seeing phantoms that give her no peace.'

'Thank you,' coolly returned Cilly. 'Very well, I'll say no more about

it, but if I find that man to be in Ireland, the same day I go home!'

Horatia gave a loud, long, provoking laugh. Lucilla felt it was for her

dignity to let the subject drop, and betook herself to the only volumes

attainable, Bradshaw and her book of flies; while Miss Charteris repaired

to the window to investigate for herself the question of the pursuer, and

made enlivening remarks on the two congregations, the one returning from

mass, the other going to church, but these were not appreciated. It

seemed as though the young ladies had but one set of spirits between

them, which were gained by the one as soon as lost by the other.

It was rather a dull day. Fast as they were, the two girls shrank from

rambling alone in streets thronged with figures that they associated with

ruffianly destitution. Sunday had brought all to light, and the large

handsome streets were beset with barefooted children, elf-locked women,

and lounging, beetle-browed men, such as Lucy had only seen in the

purlieus of Whittingtonia, in alleys looked into, but never entered by

the civilized. In reality 'rich and rare' was so true that they might

have walked there more secure from insult than in many better regulated

regions, but it was difficult to believe so, especially in attire then so

novel as to be very remarkable, and the absence of protection lost its

charm when there was no one to admire the bravado.

She did her best to embalm it for future appreciation by journalizing,

making the voyage out a far better joke than she had found it, and

describing the inside car in the true style of the facetious traveller.

Nothing so drives away fun as the desire to be funny, and she began to

grow weary of her work, and disgusted at her own lumbering attempts at

pen-and-ink mirth; but they sufficed to make Rashe laugh, they would be

quite good enough for Lord William, would grievously annoy Honora

Charlecote, would be mentioned in all the periodicals, and give them the

name of the Angel Anglers all the next season. Was not that enough to go

to Ireland and write a witty tour for?

The outside car took them to St. Patrick's, and they had their first real

enjoyment in the lazy liveliness of the vehicle, and the droll

ciceroneship of the driver, who contrived to convey such compliments to

their pretty faces as only an Irishman could have given without offence.

Lucilla sprang down with exhilarated spirits, and even wished for Honor

to share her indignation at the slovenliness around the cathedral, and

the absence of close or cloister; nay, though she had taken an aversion

to Strafford as a hero of Honor's, she forgave him, and resolved to

belabour the House of Cork handsomely in her journal, when she beheld the

six-storied monument, and imagined it, as he had found it, in the Altar's

very place. 'Would that he had created an absolute Boylean vacuum!'

What a grand _bon mot_ for her journal!

However, either the spirit of indignation at the sight of the unkneeling

congregation, or else the familiar words of the beautiful musical

service, made her more than usually devout, and stirred up something

within her that could only be appeased by the resolution that the singing

in Robert Fulmort's parish should be super-excellent. After the service,

the carman persuaded them to drive in the Phoenix Park, where they

enjoyed the beautiful broken ground, the picturesque thickets, the grass

whose colour reminded them that they were in the Emerald Isle, the purple

outlines of the Wicklow hills, whence they thought they detected a fresh

mountain breeze. They only wondered to find this delightful place so

little frequented. In England, a Sunday would have filled it with

holiday strollers, whereas here they only encountered a very few, and

those chiefly gentlefolks. The populace preferred sitting on the

doorsteps, or lounging against the houses, as if they were making studies

of themselves for caricatures; and were evidently so much struck with the

young ladies' attire, that the shelter of the hotel was gladly welcomed.

Lucilla was alone in the sitting-room when the waiter came to lay the

cloth. He looked round, as if to secure secrecy, and then remarked in a

low confidential voice, 'There's been a gentleman inquiring for you,

ma'am.'

'Who was it?' said Lucy, with feigned coolness.

'It was when you were at church, ma'am; he wished to know whether two

ladies had arrived here, Miss Charteris and Miss Sandbrook.'

'Did he leave his card?'

'He did not, ma'am, his call was to be a secret; he said it was only to

be sure whether you had arrived.'

'Then he did not give his name?'

'He did, ma'am, for he desired to be let know what route the young ladies

took when they left,' quoth the man, with a comical look, as though he

were imparting a most delightful secret.

'Was he Mr. Calthorp?'

'I said I'd not mention his name,' said the waiter, with, however, such

decided assent, that, as at the same moment he quitted the room and

Horatia entered it, Cilly exclaimed, 'There, Rashe, what do you say now

to the phantom of my vanity? Here has he been asking for us, and what

route we meant taking.'

'He! Who?'

'Who?--why, who should it be? The waiter has just told me.'

'You absurd girl!'

'Well, ask him yourself.'

So when the waiter came up, Miss Charteris demanded, 'Has Mr. Calthorp

been calling here?'

'What was the name, ma'am, if you please?'

'Calthorp. Has Mr. Calthorp been calling here?'

'Cawthorne? Was it Colonel Cawthorne, of the Royal Hussars, ma'am? He

was here yesterday, but not to-day.'

'I said Calthorp. Has a Mr. Calthorp been inquiring for us to-day?'

'I have not heard, ma'am, I'll inquire,' said he, looking alert, and

again disappearing, while Horatia looked as proud of herself as Cilly had

done just before.

He came back again while Lucilla was repeating his communication, and

assured Miss Charteris that no such person had called.

'Then, what gentleman has been here, making inquiries about us?'

'Gentleman! Indeed, ma'am, I don't understand your meaning.'

'Have you not been telling this young lady that a gentleman has been

asking after us, and desiring to be informed what route we intended to

take?'

'Ah, sure!' said the waiter, as if recollecting himself, 'I did mention

it. Some gentleman did just ask me in a careless sort of way who the two

beautiful young ladies might be, and where they were going. Such young

ladies always create a sensation, as you must be aware, ma'am, and I own

I did speak of it to the young lady, because I thought she had seen the

attraction of the gentleman's eyes.'

So perfectly assured did he look, that Lucilla felt a moment's doubt

whether her memory served her as to his former words, but just as she

raised her eyes and opened her lips in refutation, she met a glance from

him full of ludicrous reassurance, evidently meaning that he was guarding

his own secret and hers. He was gone the next moment, and Horatia turned

upon her with exultant merriment.

'I always heard that Ireland was a mendacious country,' said Cilly.

'And a country where people lose the use of their eyes and ears,' laughed

Rashe. 'O what a foundation for the second act of the drama!'

'Of which the third will be my going home by the next steamer.'

'Because a stranger asked who we were?'

Each had her own interpretation of the double-faced waiter's assertion,

and it served them to dispute upon all the evening.

Lucilla was persuaded that he imagined her an injured beauty, reft from

her faithful adorer by her stern aunt or duenna, and that he considered

himself to be doing her a kindness by keeping her informed of her hero's

vicinity, while he denied it to her companion; but she scorned to enter

into an explanation, or make any disavowal, and found the few displeased

words she spoke were received with compassion, as at the dictation of the

stern monitress.

Horatia, on the other hand, could not easily resign the comical version

that Lucilla's inordinate opinion of her own attractions had made her

imagine Mr. Calthorp's valet in the street, and discover his master in

the chance inquirer whom the waiter had mentioned; and as Cilly could not

aver that the man had actually told her in so many words that it was Mr.

Calthorp, Horatia had a right to her opinion, and though she knew she had

been a young lady a good many years, she could not easily adopt the

suggestion that she could pass for Cilly's cruel duenna.

Lucilla grew sullen, and talked of going home by the next steamer; Rashe,

far from ready for another sea voyage, called herself ill used, and

represented the absurdity of returning on a false alarm. Cilla was

staggered, and thought what it would be, if Mr. Calthorp, smoking his

cigar at his club, heard that she had fled from his imaginary pursuit.

Besides, the luggage must be recovered, so she let Horatia go on

arranging for an excursion for the Monday, only observing that it must

not be in Dublin.

'No, bonnets are needful there. What do you think of Howth and Ireland's

Eye, the place where Kirwan murdered his wife?' said Rashe, with great

gusto, for she had a strong turn for the horrid murders in the newspaper.

'Too near, and too smart,' sulked Lucy.

'Well then, Glendalough, that is wild, and far off enough, and may be

done in a day from Dublin. I'll ring and find out.'

'Not from that man.'

'Oh! we shall see Calthorps peopling the hill-sides! Well, let us have

the landlord.'

It was found that both the Devil's Glen and the Seven Churches might be

visited if they started by the seven o'clock train, and returned late at

night, and Lucilla agreeing, the evening went off as best it might, the

cousins being glad to get out of each other's company at nine, that they

might be up early the next morning. Lucy had not liked Ratia so little

since the days of her infantine tyranny.

The morning, however, raised their spirits, and sent them off in a more

friendly humour, enjoying the bustle and excitement that was meat and

drink to them, and exclaiming at the exquisite views of sea and rugged

coast along beautiful Kilmeny Bay. When they left the train, they were

delighted with their outside car, and reclined on their opposite sides in

enchantment with the fern-bordered lanes, winding between noble trees,

between which came inviting glimpses of exquisitely green meadows and

hill-sides. They stopped at a park-looking gate, leading to the Devil's

Glen, which they were to traverse on foot, meeting the car at the other

end.

Here there was just enough life and adventure to charm them, as they

gaily trod the path, winding picturesquely beside the dashing, dancing,

foaming stream, now between bare salient bluffs of dark rock, now between

glades of verdant thicket, or bold shouldering slopes of purple heath and

soft bent grass. They were constantly crying out with delight, as they

bounded from one point of view to another, sometimes climbing among loose

stones, leading between ferns and hazel stems to a well-planted

hermitage, sometimes springing across the streamlet upon stepping-stones.

At the end of the wood another lodge-gate brought them beyond the private

grounds, that showed care, even in their rusticity, and they came out on

the open hill-side in true mountain air, soft turf beneath their feet,

the stream rushing away at the bottom of the slope, and the view closed

in with blue mountains, on which the clouds marked purple shadows. This

was freedom! this was enjoyment! this was worth the journey! and Cilla's

elastic feet sprang along as if she had been a young kid. How much was

delight in the scenery, how much in the scramble, need not be analyzed.

There was plenty of scrambling before it was over. A woman who had been

lying in wait for tourists at the gate, guided them to the bend of the

glen, where they were to climb up to pay their respects to the waterfall.

The ascent was not far from perpendicular, only rendered accessible by

the slope of fallen debris at the base, and a few steps cut out from one

projecting rock to another, up to a narrow shelf, whence the cascade was

to be looked down on. The more adventurous spirits went on to a rock

overhanging the fall, and with a curious chink or cranny, forming a

window with a seat, and called King O'Toole's chair. Each girl perched

herself there, and was complimented on her strong head and active limbs,

and all their powers were needed in the long breathless pull up craggy

stepping-stones, then over steep slippery turf, ere they gained the

summit of the bank. Spent, though still gasping out, 'such fun!' they

threw themselves on their backs upon the thymy grass, and lay still for

several seconds ere they sat up to look back at the thickly-wooded

ravine, winding crevice-like in and out between the overlapping skirts of

the hills, whose rugged heads cut off the horizon. Then merrily sharing

the first instalment of luncheon with their barefooted guide, they turned

their faces onwards, where all their way seemed one bare gray moor,

rising far off into the outline of Luggela, a peak overhanging the

semblance of a crater.

Nothing afforded them much more mirth than a rude bridge, consisting of a

single row of square-headed unconnected posts, along the heads of which

Cilla three times hopped backwards and forwards for the mere drollery of

the thing, with vigour unabated by the long walk over the dreary moorland

fields with their stone walls.

By the side of the guide's cabin the car awaited them, and mile after

mile they drove on through treeless wastes, the few houses with their

thatch anchored down by stones, showing what winds must sweep along those

unsheltered tracts. The desolate solitude began to weary the volatile

pair into silence; ere the mountains rose closer to them, they crossed a

bridge over a stony stream begirt with meadows, and following its course

came into sight of their goal.

Here was Glendalough, a _cul de sac_ between the mountains, that shelved

down, enclosing it on all sides save the entrance, through which the

river issued. Their summits were bare, of the gray stone that lay in

fragments everywhere, but their sides were clothed with the lovely Irish

green pasture-land, intermixed with brushwood and trees, and a beauteous

meadow surrounded the white ring-like beach of pure white sand and

pebbles bordering the outer lake, whose gray waters sparkled in the sun.

Its twin lake, divided from it by so narrow a belt of ground, that the

white beaches lay on their green setting, like the outline of a figure of

8, had a more wild and gloomy aspect, lying deeper within the hollow, and

the hills coming sheer down on it at the further end in all their

grayness unsoftened by any verdure. The gray was that of absolute black

and white intermingled in the grain of the stone, and this was peculiarly

gloomy, but in the summer sunshine it served but to set off the

brilliance of the verdure, and the whole air of the valley was so bright

that Cilly declared that it had been traduced, and that no skylark of

sense need object thereto.

Losing sight of the lakes as they entered the shabby little town, they

sprang off the car before a small inn, and ere their feet were on the

ground were appropriated by one of a shoal of guides, in dress and speech

an ultra Irishman, exaggerating his part as a sort of buffoon for the

travellers. Rashe was diverted by his humours; Cilla thought them in bad

taste, and would fain have escaped from his brogue and his antics, with

some perception that the scene ought to be left to make its impression in

peace.

Small peace, however, was there among the scores of men, women, and

children within the rude walls containing the most noted relics; all

beset the visitors with offers of stockings, lace, or stones from the

hills; and the chatter of the guide was a lesser nuisance for which she

was forced to compound for the sake of his protection. When he had

cleared away his compatriots, she was able to see the remains of two of

the Seven Churches, the Cathedral, and St. Kevin's Kitchen, both of

enduring gray stone, covered with yellow lichen, which gave a remarkable

golden tint to their extreme old age. Architecture there was next to

none. St. Kevin's so-called kitchen had a cylindrical tower, crowned by

an extinguisher, and within the roofless walls was a flat stone, once the

altar, and still a station for pilgrims; and the cathedral contained two

broken coffin-lids with floriated crosses, but it was merely four rude

roofless walls, enclosing less space than a cottage kitchen, and less

ornamental than many a barn. The whole space was encumbered with regular

modern headstones, ugly as the worst that English graveyards could show,

and alternating between the names of Byrne and O'Toole, families who, as

the guide said, would come 'hundreds of miles to lie there.' It was a

grand thought, that those two lines, in wealth or in poverty, had been

constant to that one wild mountain burying-place, in splendour or in

ruin, for more than twelve centuries.

Here, some steps from the cathedral on the top of the slope was the chief

grandeur of the view. A noble old carved granite cross, eight or ten

feet high, stood upon the brow, bending slightly to one side, and beyond

lay the valley cherishing its treasure of the twin lakelets, girt in by

the band across them, nestled in the soft lining of copsewood and meadow,

and protected by the lofty massive hills above. In front, but below, and

somewhat to the right, lay another enclosure, containing the ivied gable

of St. Mary's Church, and the tall column-like Round Tower, both with the

same peculiar golden hoariness. The sight struck Lucilla with admiration

and wonder, but the next moment she heard the guide exhorting Rashe to

embrace the stem of the cross, telling her that if she could clasp her

arms round it, she would be sure of a handsome and rich husband within

the year.

Half superstitious, and always eager for fun, Horatia spread her arms in

the endeavour, but her hands could not have met without the aid of the

guide, who dragged them together, and celebrated the exploit with a

hurrah of congratulation, while she laughed triumphantly, and called on

her companion to try her luck. But Lucy was disgusted, and bluntly

refused, knowing her grasp to be far too small, unable to endure the

touch of the guide, and maybe shrinking from the failure of the augury.

'Ah! to be shure, an' it's not such a purty young lady as yourself that

need be taking the trouble,' did not fall pleasantly on her ears, and

still less Ratia's laugh and exclamation, 'You make too sure, do you?

Have a care. There were black looks at parting! But you need not be

afraid, if handsome be a part of the spell.'

There was no answer, and Horatia saw that the outspoken raillery that

Cilly had once courted now gave offence. She guessed that something was

amiss, but did not know that what had once been secure had been wilfully

imperilled, and that suspense was awakening new feelings of delicacy and

tenderness.

The light words and vulgar forecasting had, in spite of herself,

transported Lucilla from the rocky thicket where she was walking, even to

the cedar room at Woolstone-lane, and conjured up before her that grave,

massive brow, and the eye that would not meet her. She had hurried to

these wilds to escape that influence, and it was holding her tighter than

ever. To hasten home on account of Mr. Calthorp's pursuit would be the

most effectual vindication of the feminine dignity that she might have

impaired in Robert's eyes, but to do this on what Ratia insisted on

believing a false alarm would be the height of absurdity. She was

determined on extracting proofs sufficient to justify her return, and

every moment seemed an hour until she could feel herself free to set her

face homewards. A strange impatience seized her at every spot where the

guide stopped them to admire, and Ratia's encouragement of his witticisms

provoked her excessively.

With a kind of despair she found herself required, before taking boat for

St. Kevin's Cave, to mount into a wood to admire another waterfall.

'See two waterfalls,' she muttered, 'and you have seen them all. There

are only two kinds, one a bucket of water thrown down from the roof of a

house, the other over a staircase. Either the water was a fiction, or

you can't get at them for the wet!'

'That was a splendid fellow at the Devil's Glen.'

'There's as good a one any day at the lock on the canal at home! only we

do not delude people into coming to see it. Up such places, too!'

'Cilly, for shame. What, tired and giving in?'

'Not tired in the least; only this place is not worth getting late for

the train.'

'Will the young lady take my hand? I'd be proud to have the honour of

helping her up,' said the guide. But Lucilla disdainfully rejected his

aid, and climbed among the stones and brushwood aloof from the others,

Ratia talking in high glee to the Irishman, and adventurously scrambling.

'Cilly, here it is,' she cried, from beneath a projecting elbow of rock;

'you look down on it. It's a delicious fall. I declare one can get into

it;' and, by the aid of a tree, she lowered herself down on a flat stone,

whence she could see the cascade better than above. 'This is stunning.

I vow one can get right into the bed of the stream right across. Don't

be slow, Cilly; this is the prime fun of all!'

'You care for the romp and nothing else,' grumbled Lucilla. That

boisterous merriment was hateful to her, when feeling that the demeanour

of gentlewomen must be their protection, and with all her high spirit,

she was terrified lest insult or remark should be occasioned. Her signs

of remonstrance were only received with a derisive outburst, as Rashe

climbed down into the midst of the bed of the stream. 'Come, Cilla, or I

shall indite a page in the diary, headed Faint heart--Ah!' as her foot

slipped on the stones, and she fell backwards, but with instant efforts

at rising, such as assured her cousin that no harm was done, 'Nay,

Nonsensical clambering will be the word,' she said.

'Serves you right for getting into such places! What! hurt!' as Horatia,

after resting in a sitting posture, tried to get up, but paused, with a

cry.

'Nothing,' she said, 'I'll--' but another attempt ended in the same way.

Cilla sprang to her, followed by the guide, imprecating bad luck to the

slippery stones. Herself standing in the water, Lucilla drew her cousin

upright, and with a good deal of help from the guide, and much suffering,

brought her up the high bank, and down the rough steep descent through

the wood.

She had given her back and side a severe twist, but she moved less

painfully on more level ground, and, supported between Lucilla and the

guide, whom the mischance had converted from a comedy clown to a

delicately considerate assistant, she set out for the inn where the car

had been left. The progress lasted for two doleful hours, every step

worse than the last, and, much exhausted, she at length sank upon the

sofa in the little sitting-room of the inn.

The landlady was urgent that the wet clothes should be taken off; and the

back rubbed with whiskey, but Cilla stood agitating her small soaked

foot, and insisting that the car should come round at once, since the wet

had dried on them, and they had best lose no time in returning to Dublin,

or at least to Bray.

But Rashe cried out that the car would be the death of her; she could not

stir without a night's rest.

'And be all the stiffer to-morrow? Once on the car, you will be very

comfortable--'

'Oh, no! I can't! This is a horrid place. Of all the unlucky things

that could have happened--'

'Then,' said Cilla, fancying a little coercion would be wholesome, 'don't

be faint-hearted. You will be glad to-morrow that I had the sense to

make you move to-day. I shall order the car.'

'Indeed!' cried Horatia, her temper yielding to pain and annoyance; 'you

seem to forget that this expedition is mine! I am paymaster, and have

the only right to decide.'

Lucilla felt the taunt base, as recalling to her the dependent position

into which she had carelessly rushed, relying on the family feeling that

had hitherto made all things as one. 'Henceforth,' said she, 'I take my

share of all that we spend. I will not sell my free will.'

'So you mean to leave me here alone?' said Horatia, with positive tears

of pain, weariness, and vexation at the cruel unfriendliness of the girl

she had petted.

'Nonsense! I must abide by your fate. I only hate to see people

chicken-hearted, and thought you wanted shaking up. I stay so long as

you own me an independent agent.'

The discussion was given up, when it was announced that a room was ready;

and Rashe underwent so much in climbing the stairs, that Cilly thought

she could not have been worse on the car.

The apartment was not much behind that at the village inn at Hiltonbury.

In fact, it had gay curtains and a grand figured blind, but the door at

the Charlecote Arms had no such independent habits of opening, the carpet

would have been whole, and the chairs would not have creaked beneath

Lucy's grasshopper weight; when down she sat in doleful resignation,

having undressed her cousin, sent her _chaussure_ to dry, and dismissed

the car, with a sense of bidding farewell to the civilized world, and

entering a desert island, devoid of the zest of Robinson Crusoe.

What an endless evening it was, and how the ladies detested each other!

There lay Horatia, not hurt enough for alarm, but quite cross enough to

silence pity, suffering at every move, and sore at Cilly's want of

compassion; and here sat Lucilla, thoroughly disgusted with her cousin,

her situation, and her expedition. Believing the strain a trifle, she

not unjustly despised the want of resolution that had shrunk from so

expedient an exertion as the journey, and felt injured by the selfish

want of consideration that had condemned her to this awkward position in

this forlorn little inn, without even the few toilette necessaries that

they had with them at Dublin, and with no place to sit in, for the

sitting-room below stairs served as a coffee-room, where sundry male

tourists were imbibing whiskey, the fumes of which ascended to the young

ladies above, long before they could obtain their own meal.

The chops were curiosities; and as to the tea, the grounds, apparently

the peat of the valley, filled up nearly an eighth of the cup, causing

Lucilla in lugubrious mirth to talk of 'That lake whose gloomy tea, ne'er

saw Hyson nor Bohea,' when Rashe fretfully retorted, 'It is very unkind

in you to grumble at everything, when you know I can't help it!'

'I was not grumbling, I only wanted to enliven you.'

'Queer enlivenment!'

Nor did Lucilla's attempts at body curing succeed better. Her rubbing

only evoked screeches, and her advice was scornfully rejected. Horatia

was a determined homoeopath, and sighed for the globules in her wandering

box, and as whiskey and tobacco both became increasingly fragrant,

averred again and again that nothing should induce her to stay here

another night.

Nothing? Lucilla found her in the morning in all the aches and flushes

of a feverish cold, her sprain severely painful, her eyes swollen, her

throat so sore, that in alarm Cilly besought her to send for advice; but

Rashe regarded a murderous allopathist as near akin to an executioner,

and only bewailed the want of her minikin doses.

Giving up the hope of an immediate departure, Lucilla despatched a

messenger to Bray, thence to telegraph for the luggage; and the day was

spent in fears lest their landlord at Dublin might detain their goods as

those of suspicious characters.

Other excitement there was none, not even in quarrelling, for Rashe was

in a sleepy state, only roused by interludes of gloomy tea and greasy

broth; and outside, the clouds had closed down, such clouds as she had

never seen, blotting out lake and mountain with an impervious gray

curtain, seeming to bathe rather than to rain on the place. She longed

to dash out into it, but Ratia's example warned her against drenching her

only garments, though indoors the dryness was only comparative.

Everything she touched, herself included, seemed pervaded by a damp, limp

rawness, that she vainly tried to dispel by ordering a fire. The turf

smouldered, the smoke came into the room, and made their eyes water, and

Rashe insisted that the fire should be put out.

Cilla almost envied her sleep, as she sat disconsolate in the window,

watching the comparative density of the rain, and listening to the

extraordinary howls and shrieks in the town, which kept her constantly

expecting that a murder or a rebellion would come to relieve the monotony

of the day, till she found that nothing ensued, and no one took any

notice.

She tried to sketch from memory, but nothing would hinder that least

pleasant of occupations--thought. Either she imagined every unpleasant

chance of detention, she worried herself about Robert Fulmort, or

marvelled what Mr. Prendergast and the censorious ladies would do with

Edna Murrell. Many a time did she hold her watch to her ear, suspecting

it of having stopped, so slowly did it loiter through the weary hours.

Eleven o'clock when she hoped it was one--half-past two when it felt like

five.

By real five, the mist was thinner, showing first nearer, then remoter

objects; the coarse slates of the roofs opposite emerged polished and

dripping, and the cloud finally took its leave, some heavy flakes, like

cotton wool, hanging on the hill-side, and every rock shining, every leaf

glistening. Verdure and rosy cheeks both resulted from a perpetual

vapour-bath.

Lucilla rejoiced in her liberty, and hurried out of doors, but leaning

out of the coffee-room window, loungers were seen who made her sensible

of the awkwardness of her position, and she looked about for yesterday's

guide as a friend, but he was not at hand, and her uneasy gaze brought

round her numbers, begging or offering guidance. She wished to retreat,

but would not, and walked briskly along the side of the valley opposite

to that she had yesterday visited, in search of the other four churches.

Two fragments were at the junction of the lakes, another was entirely

destroyed, but the last, called the Abbey, stood in ruins within the same

wall as the Round Tower, which rose straight, round, mysterious, defying

inquiry, as it caught the evening light on its summit, even as it had

done for so many centuries past.

Not that Cilla thought of the riddles of that tower, far less of the

early Christianity of the isle of saints, of which these ruins and their

wild legend were the only vestiges, nor of the mysticism that planted

clusters of churches in sevens as analogous to the seven stars of the

Apocalypse. Even the rugged glories of the landscape chiefly addressed

themselves to her as good to sketch, her highest flight in admiration of

the picturesque. In the state of mind ascribed to the ancients, she only

felt the weird unhomelikeness of the place, as though she were at the

ends of the earth, unable to return, and always depressed by solitude;

she could have wept. Was it for this that she had risked the love that

had been her own from childhood, and broken with the friend to whom her

father had commended her? Was it worth while to defy their censures for

this dreary spot, this weak-spirited, exacting, unrefined companion, and

the insult of Mr. Calthorp's pursuit?

Naturally shrewd, well knowing the world, and guarded by a real

attachment, Lucilla had never regarded the millionaire's attentions as

more than idle amusement in watching the frolics of a beauty, and had

suffered them as adding to her own diversion; but his secretly following

her, no doubt to derive mirth from her proceedings, revealed to her that

woman could not permit such terms without loss of dignity, and her cheek

burnt at the thought of the ludicrous light in which he might place her

present predicament before a conclave of gentlemen.

The thought was intolerable. To escape it by rapid motion, she turned

hastily to leave the enclosure. A figure was climbing over the steps in

the wall with outstretched hand, as if he expected her to cling to him,

and Mr. Calthorp, springing forward, eagerly exclaimed in familiar,

patronizing tones, 'Miss Sandbrook! They told me you were gone this

way.' Then, in a very different voice at the unexpected look and bow

that he encountered: 'I hope Miss Charteris's accident is not serious.'

'Thank you, not serious,' was the freezing reply.

'I am glad. How did it occur?'

'It was a fall.' He should have no good story wherewith to regale his

friends.

'Going on well, I trust? Chancing to be at Dublin, I heard by accident

you were here, and fearing that there might be a difficulty, I ran down

in the hope of being of service to you.'

'Thank you,' in the least thankful of tones.

'Is there nothing I can do for you?'

'Thank you, nothing.'

'Could I not obtain some advice for Miss Charteris?'

'Thank you, she wishes for none.'

'I am sure'--he spoke eagerly--'that in some way I could be of use to

you. I shall remain at hand. I cannot bear that you should be alone in

this remote place.'

'Thank you, we will not put you to inconvenience. We intended to be

alone.'

'I see you esteem it a great liberty,' said poor Mr. Calthorp; 'but you

must forgive my impulse to see whether I could be of any assistance to

you. I will do as you desire, but at least you will let me leave Stefano

with you; he is a fellow full of resources, who would make you

comfortable here, and me easy about you.'

'Thank you, we require no one.'

Those 'thank you's' were intolerable, but her defensive reserve and

dignity attracted the gentleman more than all her dashing brilliancy, and

he became more urgent. 'You cannot ask me to leave you entirely to

yourselves under such circumstances.'

'I more than ask it, I insist upon it. Good morning.'

'Miss Sandbrook, do not go till you have heard and forgiven me.'

'I will not hear you, Mr. Calthorp. This is neither the time nor place,'

said Lucilla, inly more and more perturbed, but moving along with slow,

quiet steps, and betraying no emotion. 'The object of our journey was

totally defeated by meeting any of our ordinary acquaintance, and but for

this mischance I should have been on my way home to-day.'

'Oh! Miss Sandbrook, do you class me among your ordinary acquaintance?'

It was all she could do to hinder her walk from losing its calm slowness,

and before she could divest her intended reply of undignified sharpness,

he continued: 'Who could have betrayed my presence? But for this, I

meant that you should never have been aware that I was hovering near to

watch over you.'

'Yes, to collect good stories for your club.'

'This is injustice! Flagrant injustice, Miss Sandbrook! Will you not

credit the anxiety that irresistibly impelled me to be ever at hand in

case you should need a protector?'

'No,' was the point-blank reply.

'How shall I convince you?' he cried, vehemently. 'What have I done that

you should refuse to believe in the feelings that prompted me?'

'What have you done?' said Lucilla, whose blood was up. 'You have taken

a liberty, which is the best proof of what your feelings are, and every

moment that you force your presence on me adds to the offence!'

She saw that she had succeeded. He stood still, bowed, and answered not,

possibly deeming this the most effective means of recalling her; but from

first to last he had not known Lucilla Sandbrook.

The eager, protecting familiarity of his first address had given her such

a shock that she felt certain that she had no guard but herself from

positively insulting advances; and though abstaining from all quickening

of pace, her heart throbbed violently in the fear of hearing him

following her, and the inn was a haven of refuge.

She flew up to her bedroom to tear about like a panther, as if by

violence to work down the tumult in her breast. She had proved the truth

of Honora's warning, that beyond the pale of ordinary _convenances_, a

woman is exposed to insult, and however sufficient she may be for her own

protection, the very fact of having to defend herself is well-nigh

degradation. It was not owning the error. It was the agony of

humiliation, not the meekness of humility, and she was as angry with Miss

Charlecote for the prediction as with Mr. Calthorp for having fulfilled

it, enraged with Horatia, and desperate at her present imprisoned

condition, unable to escape, and liable to be still haunted by her enemy.

At last she saw the discomfited swain re-enter the inn, his car come

round, and finally drive off with him; and then she felt what a blank was

her victory. If she breathed freely, it was at the cost of an increased

sense of solitude and severance from the habitable world.

Hitherto she had kept away from her cousin, trusting that the visit might

remain a secret, too mortifying to both parties to be divulged, but she

found Horatia in a state of eager anticipation, awakened from the torpor

to watch for tidings of a happy conclusion to their difficulties, and

preparing jests on the pettish ingratitude with which she expected

Lucilla to requite the services that would be nevertheless accepted.

Gone! Sent away! Not even commissioned to find the boxes. Horatia's

consternation and irritation knew no bounds. Lucilla was no less

indignant that she could imagine it possible to become dependent on his

good offices, or to permit him to remain in the neighbourhood. Rashe

angrily scoffed at her newborn scruples, and complained of her want of

consideration for herself. Cilla reproached her cousin with utter

absence of any sense of propriety and decorum. Rashe talked of

ingratitude, and her sore throat being by this time past conversation,

she came to tears. Cilla, who could not bear to see any one unhappy,

tried many a 'never mind,' many a 'didn't mean,' many a fair augury for

the morrow, but all in vain, and night came down upon the Angel Anglers

more forlorn and less friendly than ever; and with all the invalid's

discomforts so much aggravated by the tears and the altercation, that

escape from this gloomy shore appeared infinitely remote.

There was an essential difference of tone of mind between those brought

up at Hiltonbury or at Castle Blanch, and though high spirits had long

concealed the unlikeness, it had now been made bare, and Lucy could not

conquer her disgust and disappointment.

Sunshine was on Luggela, and Horatia's ailments were abating, so, as her

temper was not alleviated, Lucilla thought peace would be best preserved

by sallying out to sketch. A drawing from behind the cross became so

engrossing that she was sorry to find it time for the early dinner, and

her artistic pride was only allayed by the conviction that she should

always hate what recalled Glendalough.

Rashe was better, and was up and dressed. Hopes of departure produced

amity, and they were almost lively over their veal broth, when sounds of

arrival made Lucilla groan at the prospect of cockney tourists

obstructing the completion of her drawing.

'There's a gentleman asking to see you, Miss.'

'I can see no one.'

'Cilla, now do.'

'Tell him I cannot see him,' repeated Lucy, imperiously.

'How can you be so silly? he may have heard of our boxes.'

'I would toss them into the lake rather than take them from him.'

'Eh! pray let me be present when you perform the ceremony! Cilla in the

heroics! Whom is she expecting?' said a voice outside the door, ever

ajar, a voice that made Lucilla clasp her hands in ecstasy.

'You, Owen! come in,' cried Horatia, writhing herself up.

'Owen, old Owen! that's right,' burst from Cilla, as she sprang to him.

'Right! Ah! that is not the greeting I expected; I was thinking how to

guard my eyes. So, you have had enough of the unprotected dodge! What

has Rashe been doing to herself? A desperate leap down the falls of

Niagara.'

Horatia was diffuse in the narration; but, after the first, Lucy did not

speak. She began by arming herself against her brother's derision, but

presently felt perplexed by detecting on his countenance something

unwontedly grave and preoccupied. She was sure that his attention was

far away from Rashe's long story, and she abruptly interrupted it with,

'How came you here, Owen?'

He did not seem to hear, and she demanded, 'Is anything the matter? Are

you come to fetch us because any one is ill?'

Starting, he said, 'No, oh no!'

'Then what brought you here? a family council, or Honor Charlecote?'

'Honor Charlecote,' he repeated mistily: then, making an effort, 'Yes,

good old soul, she gave me a vacation tour on condition that I should

keep an eye on you. Go on, Rashe; what were you saying?'

'Didn't you hear me, Owen? Why, Calthorp, the great Calthorp, is in our

wake. Cilly is frantic.'

'Calthorp about!' exclaimed Owen, with a start of dismay. 'Where?'

'I've disposed of him,' quoth Lucilla; 'he'll not trouble us again.'

'Which way is he gone?'

'I would not tell you if I knew.'

'Don't be such an idiot,' he petulantly answered; 'I want nothing of the

fellow, only to know whether he is clean gone. Are you sure whether he

went by Bray?'

'I told you I neither knew nor cared.'

'Could you have believed, Owen,' said Rashe, plaintively, 'that she was

so absurd as never even to tell him to inquire for our boxes?'

'Owen knows better;' but Lucilla stopped, surprised to see that his

thoughts were again astray. Giving a constrained smile, he asked, 'Well,

what next?'

'To find our boxes,' they answered in a breath.

'Your boxes? Didn't I tell you I've got them here?'

'Owen, you're a trump,' cried Rashe.

'How on earth did you know about them?' inquired his sister.

'Very simply; crossed from Liverpool yesterday, reconnoitred at your

hotel, was shown your telegram, went to the luggage-office, routed out

that the things were taking a gentle tour to Limerick, got them back this

morning, and came on. And what are you after next?'

'Home,' jerked out Lucy, without looking up, thinking how welcome he

would have been yesterday, without the goods.

'Yes, home,' said Horatia. 'This abominable sprain will hinder my

throwing a line, or jolting on Irish roads, and if Cilla is to be in

agonies when she sees a man on the horizon, we might as well never have

come.'

'Will you help me to carry home this poor invalid warrior, Owen?' said

Lucilla; 'she will permit you.'

'I'll put you into the steamer,' said Owen; 'but you see, I have made my

arrangements for doing Killarney and the rest of it.'

'I declare,' said Rashe, recovering benevolence with comfort, 'if they

would send Scott from the castle to meet me at Holyhead, Cilly might as

well go on with you. You would be sufficient to keep off the Calthorps.'

'I'm afraid that's no go,' hesitated Owen. 'You see I had made my plans,

trusting to your bold assertions that you would suffer no one to

approach.'

'Oh! never mind. It was no proposal of mine. I've had enough of

Ireland,' returned Lucy, somewhat aggrieved.

'How soon shall you be sufficiently repaired for a start, Ratia?' asked

Owen, turning quickly round to her. 'To-morrow? No! Well, I'll come

over and see.'

'Going away?' cried the ladies, by no means willing to part with their

guardian.

'Yes, I must. Expecting that we should be parallels never meeting, I had

to provide for myself.'

'I see,' said Rashe; 'he has a merry party at Newragh Bridge, and will

sit up over whist and punch till midnight!'

'You don't pretend to put yourselves in competition,' said he, snatching

at the idea hastily.

'Oh! no,' said his sister, with an annoyed gesture. 'I never expect you

to prefer me and my comfort to any one.'

'Indeed, Cilla, I'm sorry,' he answered gently, but in perplexity, 'but I

never reckoned on being wanted, and engagements are engagements.'

'I'm sure I don't want you when anything pleasanter is going forward,'

she answered, with vexation in her tone.

'I'll be here by eleven or twelve,' he replied, avoiding the altercation;

'but I must get back now. I shall be waited for.'

'Who is it that can't wait?' asked Rashe.

'Oh! just an English acquaintance of mine. There, goodbye. I wish I had

come in time to surprise the modern St. Kevin! Are you sure there was no

drowning in the lake?'

'You know it was blessed to drown no one after Kathleen.'

'Reassuring! Only mind you put a chapter about it into the tour.' Under

the cover of these words he was gone.

'I declare there's some mystery about his companion!' exclaimed Horatia.

'Suppose it were Calthorp himself?'

'Owen is not so lost to respect for his sister.'

'But did you not see how little he was surprised, and how much

preoccupied?'

'Very likely; but no one but you could imagine him capable of such an

outrage.'

'You have been crazy ever since you entered Ireland, and expect every one

else to be the same. Seriously, what damage did you anticipate from a

little civility?'

'If you begin upon that, I shall go out and finish my sketch, and not

unpack one of the boxes.'

Nevertheless, Lucilla spent much fretting guesswork on her cousin's

surmise. She relied too much on Owen's sense of propriety to entertain

the idea that he could be forwarding a pursuit so obviously insolent, but

a still wilder conjecture had been set afloat in her mind. Could the

nameless one be Robert Fulmort? Though aware of the anonymous nature of

brother's friends, the secrecy struck her as unusually guarded; and to

one so used to devotion, it seemed no extraordinary homage that another

admirer should be drawn along at a respectful distance, a satellite to

her erratic course; nay, probably all had been concerted in

Woolstone-lane, and therewith the naughty girl crested her head, and

prepared to take offence. After all, it could not be, or why should Owen

have been bent on returning, and be so independent of her? Far more

probably he had met a college friend or a Westminster schoolfellow, some

of whom were in regiments quartered in Ireland, and on the morrow would

bring him to do the lions of Glendalough, among which might be reckoned

the Angel Anglers!

That possibility might have added some grains to the satisfaction of

making a respectable toilette next day. Certain it is that Miss

Sandbrook's mountain costume was an exquisite feat of elaborate

simplicity, and that the completion of her sketch was interrupted by many

a backward look down the pass, and many a contradictory mood, sometimes

boding almost as harsh a reception for Robert as for Mr. Calthorp,

sometimes relenting in the thrill of hope, sometimes accusing herself of

arrant folly, and expecting as a _pis aller_ the diversion of dazzling

and tormenting an Oxonian, or a soldier or two! Be the meeting what it

might, she preferred that it should be out of Horatia's sight, and so

drew on and on to the detriment of her distances.

Positively it was past twelve, and the desire to be surprised

unconcernedly occupied could no longer obviate her restlessness, so she

packed up her hair-pencil, and, walking back to the inn, found Rashe in

solitary possession of the coffee-room.

'You have missed him, Cilly.'

'Owen? No one else?'

'No, not the Calthorp; I am sorry for you.'

'But who was here? tell me, Rashe.'

'Owen, I tell you,' repeated Horatia, playing with her impatience.

'Tell me; I will know whether he has any one with him.'

'Alack for your disappointment, for the waste of that blue bow; not a

soul came here but himself.'

'And where is he? how did I miss him?' said Lucilla, forcibly repressing

the mortification for which her cousin was watching.

'Gone. As I was not in travelling trim, and you not forthcoming, he

could not wait; but we are to be off to-morrow at ten o'clock.'

'Why did he not come out to find me? Did you tell him I was close by?'

'He had to join his friend, and go to the Vale of Avoca. I've found out

the man, Cilla. No, don't look so much on the _qui vive_; it's only Jack

Hastings!'

'Jack Hastings!' said Lucilla, her looks fallen. 'No wonder he would not

bring him here.'

'Why not, poor fellow? I used to know him very well before he was up the

spout.'

'I wish Owen had not fallen in with him,' said the sister, gravely. 'Are

you certain it is so, Rashe?'

'I taxed him with it, and he did not deny it; only put it from him,

laughing. What's the harm? Poor Jack was always a good-natured,

honourable fellow, uncommonly clever and amusing--a well-read man, too;

and Owen is safe enough--no one could try to borrow of him.'

'What would Honor's feelings be?' said Lucilla, with more fellow-feeling

for her than for months past. Lax as was the sister's tolerance, she was

startled at his becoming the associate of an avowedly loose character

under the stigma of the world, and with perilous abilities and

agreeableness; and it was another of Horatia's offences against proper

feeling, not only to regard such evil communications with indifference,

but absolutely to wish to be brought into contact with a person of this

description in their present isolated state. Displeased and uneasy,

Lucilla assumed the _role_ of petulance and quarrelsomeness for the rest

of the day, and revenged herself to the best of her abilities upon Rashe

and Owen, by refusing to go to inspect the scene of Kathleen's fatal

repulse.

True to his appointment, Owen arrived alone on a car chosen with all

regard to Horatia's comfort, and was most actively attentive in settling

on it the ladies and their luggage, stretching himself out on the

opposite side, his face raised to the clouds, as he whistled an air; but

his eye was still restless, and his sister resolved on questioning him.

Opportunities were, however, rare; whether or not with the design of

warding off a _tete-a-tete_, he devoted himself to his cousin's service

in a manner rare to her since she had laid herself out to be treated as

though her name were Horace instead of Horatia. However, Lucilla was not

the woman to be balked of a settled purpose; and at their hotel, at

Dublin, she nailed him fast by turning back on him when Horatia bade them

good night. 'Well, what do you want?' he asked, annoyed.

'I want to speak to you.'

'I hope it is to beg me to write to ask Honor to receive you at home, and

promise to behave like a decent and respectable person.'

'I want neither a judge nor an intercessor in you.'

'Come, Lucy, it really would be for every one's good if you would go and

take care of poor Honor. You have been using her vilely, and I should

think you'd had enough of Rashe for one while.'

'If I have used her vilely, at least I have dealt openly by her,' said

Lucilla. 'She has always seen the worst of me on the surface. Can you

bear to talk of her when you know how you are treating her?'

He coloured violently, and his furious gesture would have intimidated

most sisters; but she stood her ground, and answered his stammering

demand what she dared to imply.

'You may go into a passion, but you cannot hinder me from esteeming it

shameful to make her mission a cover for associating with one whom she

would regard with so much horror as Jack Hastings.'

'Jack Hastings!' cried Owen, to her amazement, bursting into a fit of

laughter, loud, long, and explosive. 'Well done, Rashe!'

'You told her so!'

'She told me so, and one does not contradict a lady.'

'Something must have put it into her head.'

'Only to be accounted for by an unrequited attachment,' laughed Owen;

'depend on it, a comparison of dates would show Hastings's incarceration

to have been the epoch of Rashe's taking to the high masculine line--

'"If e'er she loved, 'twas him alone

Who lived within the jug of stone."'

'For shame, Owen; Rashe never was in love.'

But he went on laughing at Rashe's disappointment at his solitary arrival

till she said, tartly, 'You cannot wonder at our thinking you must have

some reason for neither mentioning your companion's name nor bringing him

with you.'

'In fact, no man not under a cloud could abstain from paying homage to

the queen of the anglers.'

It was so true as to raise an angry spot on her cheek, and provoke the

hasty excuse, 'It would have been obvious to have brought your friend to

see your cousin and sister.'

'One broken-backed, both unwashed! O, the sincerity of the resistance I

overheard! No gentleman admitted, forsooth! O, for a lodge in some vast

wilderness! Yes; St. Anthony would have found it a wilderness indeed

without his temptations. What would St. Dunstan have been minus the

black gentleman's nose, or St. Kevin but for Kathleen? It was a

fortunate interposition that Calthorp turned up the day before I came, or

I might have had to drag the lake for you.'

This personal attack only made her persist. 'It was very different when

we were alone or with you; you know very well that there could have been

no objection.'

'No objection on your side, certainly, so I perceive; but suppose there

were no desire on the other?'

'Oh!' in a piqued voice, 'I know many men don't care for ladies' society,

but I don't see why they should be nameless.'

'I thought you would deem such a name unworthy to be mentioned.'

'Well, but who is the shy man? Is it the little Henniker, who used to

look as if he would dive under the table when you brought him from

Westminster?'

'If I told you, you would remember it against the poor creature for life,

as a deliberate insult and want of taste. Good night.'

He took his hat, and went out, leaving Lucy balancing her guesses between

Ensign Henniker and him whom she could not mention. Her rejection of Mr.

Calthorp might have occasioned the present secrecy, and she was content

to leave herself the pleasant mystery, in the hope of having it dispelled

by her last glance of Kingstown quay.

In that hope, she rocked herself to sleep, and next morning was so extra

vivacious as to be a sore trial to poor Rashe, in the anticipation of the

_peine forte et dure_ of St. George's Channel. Owen was also in high

spirits, but a pattern of consideration and kind attention, as he saw the

ladies on board, and provided for their comfort, not leaving them till

the last moment.

Lucilla's heart had beaten fast from the moment she had reached

Kingstown; she was keeping her hand free to wave a most encouraging kiss,

and as her eye roamed over the heads upon the quay without a recognition,

she felt absolutely baffled and cheated; and gloriously as the Bay of

Dublin spread itself before her, she was conscious only of wrath and

mortification, and of a bitter sense of dreariness and desertion. Nobody

cared for her, not even her brother!