life--to wealth or
ambition. You know she herself entertains a strong prejudice--no, that's
not the word--"

"I beg your pardon, sir; that is the word; her distaste to me is a
prejudice, and nothing else."

"No, Sir Robert; it is not the word. Antipathy is the word. Now I tell
you, once for all, that I will not force my child."

"This change, Mr. Folliard," observed the baronet, "is somewhat of the
suddenest. Has any thing occurred on my part to occasion it?"

"Perhaps I may have other views for her, Sir Robert."

"That may be; but is such conduct either fair or honorable towards me,
Mr. Folliard? Have I got a rival, and if so, who is he?"

"Oh, I wouldn't tell you that for the world."

"And why not, pray?"

"Because," replied the squire, "if you found out who he was, you'd be
hanged for cannibalism."

"I really don't understand you, Mr. Folliard. Excuse me, but it would
seem to me that something has put you into no very agreeable humor
to-day."

"You don't understand me! Why, Sir Robert," replied the other, "I know
you so well that if you heard the name of your rival you would first
kill him, then powder him, and, lastly, eat him. You are such a terrible
fellow that you care about no man's life, not even about mine."

Now it was to this very point that the calculating baronet wished to
bring him. The old man, he knew, was whimsical, capricious, and in the
habit of taking all his strongest and most enduring resolutions from
sudden contrasts produced by some mistake of his own, or from some
discovery made to him on the part of others.

"As to your life, Mr. Folliard, let me assure you," replied Sir Robert,
"that there is no man living prizes it, and, let me add, you character
too, more highly than I do; but, my dear sir, your life was never in
danger."

"Never in danger! what do you mean, Sir Robert? I tell you, sir, that
the murdering miscreant, the Red Rapparee, had a loaded gun levelled at
me last evening, after dark."

"I know it," replied the other; "I am well aware of it, and you were
rescued just in the nick of time."

"True enough," said the squire, "just in the nick of time; by that
glorious young fellow--a--a--yes--Reilly--Willy Reilly."

"This Willy Reilly, sir, is a very accomplished person, I think."

"A gentleman, Sir Robert, every inch of him, and as handsome and
fine-looking a young fellow as ever I laid my eyes upon."

"He was educated on the Continent by the Jesuits."

"No!" re