verage is halfway between the
ten-spot and the knave. Now, what are the chances of the junior hand
discardin' a ten and drawin' a higher card? In the Kildare Club they are
understood to be two and three-eighths to one against, although Colonel
Mellish claims they are two and five-eighths to one. The colonel is an
authority, but I think he is a trifle pessimistic. He--"

"There, Phelim," said Lady Nora, "I think that is enough for the first
lesson. We dine at eight. If Lord Vauxhall has nothing better to do
perhaps he will come with you."

"We'll dine on deck, Phelim, dear," said Miss O'Kelly. "You won't have
to go below."

VII

The next morning the earl went to the church, as usual. He had not slept
well. The advent of Phelim had set him to thinking. Here was a rival;
and a dangerous one. He admitted this grudgingly, for an Englishman is
slow to see a rival in a foreigner, and who so foreign as an Irishman?

At dinner, on the yacht, the night before, Phelim had been much in
evidence. His six feet three had impressed the earl's six feet. Phelim
had been well dressed. "Confound him," thought the earl, "he goes to
Poole, or Johns & Pegg. Why doesn't he get his clothes at home?" Then
Phelim had talked much, and he had talked well. He had told stories at
which the earl had been compelled to laugh. He had related experiences
of his home-life, of the peasants, the priests, the clubs, hunting and
shooting, his brief stay in Parliament, what he had seen in Venice
during the last few days; and, when dinner was over, Lady Nora, who had
been all attention, said: "Sing for us, Phelim," and they had gone
below, Phelim stooping to save his head; and he had struck those
mysterious chords upon the piano, by way of prelude, that silence talk,
that put the world far away, that set the men to glancing at the women,
and the women to glancing at the floor and making sure of their
handkerchiefs, and then--he had sung.

How can one describe a song? As well attempt to paint a perfume.

When Phelim finished singing Miss O'Kelly went over and kissed him, and
Lady Nora went away, her eyes glistening.

The earl remembered all these things as he went up the aisle. He had
passed that way five times each day for nine days. He came to the door
of the treasury, thinking, not of Nora, but of Phelim--and the door was
open.

He went in. The gorgeous color of the place stopped him, on the
threshold. He saw the broidered vestments upon whi