r, for not only you had not asked the question, but you had not
shown so much emotion when putting it So it is," muttered he to himself.
"It is so ever. They have most sympathy with the poor who have least the
power to help them."

"But I ask again, whose the fault of such a system?" cried Cashel.

"Ask your host yonder, and you 'll soon have an answer to your question.
You 'll hear enough of landlords' calamities,--wrecking tenantry, people
in barbarism, irreclaimably bad, sunk in crime, black in ingratitude.
Ask the peasant, and he 'll tell you of clearances,--whole families
turned out to starve and die in the highways; the iron pressure of the
agent in the dreary season of famine and fever. Ask the priest, and
he will say, it is the galling tyranny of the 'rich man's church'
establishment consuming the substance, but restoring nothing to the
people. Ask the rector, and he 'll prove it is popery,--the debasing
slavery of the very blackest of all superstitions; and so on. Each
throws upon another the load which he refuses to bear his share of,
and the end is, we have a reckless gentry and a ruined people; all the
embittering hatred of a controversy, and little of the active working of
Christian charity. Good-bye, sir. I ask pardon for inflicting something
like a sermon upon you. Good-bye."

"And yet," said Cashel, "you have only made me anxious to hear more from
you. May I ask if we are likely to meet again, and where?"

"If you should chance to be sick during your visit here, and send for
the doctor, it's likely they 'll fetch me, as there is no other here."

Cashel started, for he at once remembered that the speaker was Dr.
Tiernay, the friend of his tenant, Mr. Corrigan. As the doctor did not
recognize him, however, Roland resolved to keep his secret as long as he
could.

"There, sir," said Cashel, "I see some friends accosting you. I 'll say
good-bye."

"Too late to do so now," said the other, half sulkily. "Mr. Corrigan
would feel it a slight if you turned back, when his table was spread for
a meal. You 'll have to breakfast here."

Before Roland could answer, Mr. Corrigan came forward from beneath the
porch, and, with a hand to each, bid them welcome.

"I was telling this gentleman," said Tiernay, "that he is too far within
your boundaries for retreat. He was about to turn back."

"Nay, nay," said the old man, smiling; "an old fellow like you or me may
do a churlish thing, but a young man's nature is f