it the property
yourself. All business matters will be completed here, I trust, by
Saturday. What, then, if we go over on Monday to Tubbermore?"

"Agreed. I have a kind of anxiety to look at the place,--indeed, a mere
glance would decide me if I ever care to return to it again."

"Then, I perceive, our counsel is of no avail here," said Mrs.
Kennyfeck, rising, with a very ill-concealed chagrin.

"Nay, madam, don't say so. You never got so far as to give it," cried
Cashel.

"Oh, yes, you forget that I said it would be absurd to hesitate about
resuming possession."

"Unquestionably," echoed Miss Kennyfeck. "It is merely to indulge an old
man's caprice at the cost of your own comfort and convenience."

"But he may cling to the spot, sister dear," said Olivia, in an accent
only loud enough to be audible by Cashel.

"You are right," said Roland, in her ear, with a look that spoke his
approval far more eloquently.

Although Miss Kennyfeck had heard nothing that passed, her quickness
detected the looks of intelligence that were so speedily interchanged,
and as she left the room she took occasion to whisper, "Do take advice,
dear; there is no keeping up a pace like that."

CHAPTER IX. AN EXCITING ADVENTURE

"Bravo, Toro."

As it chanced that many of Mr. Kennyfeck's clients were Western
gentlemen, whose tastes have an unequivocal tendency to all matters
relating to horse-flesh, his stable was not less choicely furnished
than his cellar; for, besides being always able to command the shrewdest
judgments when he decided to make a purchase, many an outstanding
balance of long duration, many a debt significantly pencilled "doubtful"
or "bad," in his note-book, was cleared off by some tall, sinewy
steeplechaser from Galway, or some redoubted performer with the
"Blazers."

So well known was this fact that several needed no other standard of a
neighbor's circumstances, than whether he had contributed or not to the
Kennyfeck stud. This brief explanation we have been induced to make, to
account for the sporting character of a stable whose proprietor never
was once seen in the saddle. Far otherwise the ladies of the house; the
mother and daughters, but in particular the elder, rode with all the
native grace of Galway; and as they were invariably well mounted, and
their grooms the smartest and best appointed, their "turn-out" was the
admiration of the capital.

It was in vain that the English officials at the C