rnment a support whenever the measures were such as in my
conscience I approved of. I am the more free to say so, because I want
nothing,--I would accept of nothing from them; and I went so far as
to say as much. 'I 'll never insult you with an offer, Carew,' was the
Duke's reply to me, and we shook hands on our bargain!"

"It was that very shake-hands alarmed me!" said Dan, gravely; "I saw it
from the window, and guessed there was something in the wind!"

"Come, come, Dan, it's not in your nature to be suspectful; you could
n't possibly suppose--"

"I never lose time in suspecting anybody," broke in MacNaghten; "but
indeed it's not worth any one's while to plot against me! I only say,
Watty, don't be hurried away by any momentary anger with Curtis and
the like of him. You have a fine position, don't wreck it out of a mere
pique!"

"I 'll go abroad again! I 've lived too long out of this wasps' nest to
endure the eternal buzzing and stinging that goes on around me."

"I think you 're right there," said MacNaghten.

My father made no reply, and looked anything but pleased at the ready
concurrence in his plan.

"We shall never understand them, nor they us," said he, peevishly, after
a pause.

MacNaghten nodded an affirmative.

"The Duke, of course, then, remains here?" said Dan, after a pause.

"Of course he does not," replied my father, pettishly; "he has announced
to me the urgent necessity of his return to Dublin, nor do I see that
anything has since occurred to alter that contingency."

The tone in which he had spoken these words showed not only how he
felt the taunt implied in Dan's remark, but how sincerely to his own
conscience he acknowledged its justice. There was no doubt of it! My
father's patriotism, that withstood all the blandishments of "Castle"
flattery, all the seductions of power, and all the bright visions of
ambition, had given way under the impulse of a wounded self-love. That
men so inferior to him should dictate and control his actions, presume
to influence his whole conduct, and even exercise rule in his household,
gave him deep offence, coming as it did at a moment when his spirit
was chafed by disappointment; and thus, he that could neither have been
bribed nor bought was entrapped by a trick and an accident.

Every one knows that there are little social panics as there are
national ones,--terrors for which none can account, leading to actions
for which none can give the reason; so