ed from the room to summon her father to her aid.

"Well, you've come to turn me out, I suppose?" said Aunt Fanny, as the
old gentleman entered in a state of perplexity that might have evoked
the compassion of a less determined enemy.

"My dear Miss Fanny--"

"None of your four courts blarney with me, sir; I'm ready to go--I 'll
leave by the coach to-night. I conclude you 'll have the decency to pay
for my place, and my dinner too, for I 'll go to Dawson's Hotel this
minute. Tell your mother, and that poor dawdle there, your sister, that
they 'd be thankful they'd have followed my advice. The rate you're
living, old gentleman, might even frighten you. There's more waste in
your kitchen than in Lord Clondooney's.

"As for yourself, Caroline, you 're the best of the lot; but your
tongue, darling!--your tongue!" And here she made a gesture of far more
expressive force than any mere words could give.

"Is she gone?" said Mrs. Kennyfeck, as a slight lull succeeded.

"Yes, mamma," whispered Miss Kennyfeck; "but speak low, for Mr. Phillis
is in the hall."

"I'll never see her again--I'll never set eyes on her," muttered Mrs.
Kennyfeck.

"I shouldn't wonder, mamma, if that anonymous letter was written by
herself," said Caroline. "She never forgave Mr. Cashel for not specially
inviting her; and this, I'm almost sure, was the way she took to revenge
herself."

"So it was," cried Mrs. Kennyfeck, eagerly seizing at the notion. "Hush,
take care Livy doesn't hear you."

"As for the yacht expedition, it was just the kind of thing Lady Kilgoff
was ready for. She is dying to be talked of."

"And that poor, weak creature, Cashel, will be so flattered by the soft
words of a peeress, he'll be intolerable ever after."

"Aunt Fanny--Aunt Fanny!" sighed Miss Kennyfeck, with a mournful
cadence.

"If I only was sure--that is, perfectly certain--that she wrote that
letter about Cashel--But here comes your father--take Olivia, and leave
me alone."

Miss Kennyfeck assisted her sister from the sofa, and led her in silence
from the room, while Mr. Kennyfeck sat down, with folded hands and bent
down head, a perfect picture of dismay and bewilderment.

"Well," said his wife, after a reasonable interval of patient
expectation that he would speak--"well, what have you to say for
yourself now, sir?"

The poor solicitor, who never suspected that he was under any
indictment, looked up with an expression of almost comic innocence.

"D