s of my own affection for any
return of my love. True it was, that more than once Louisa's look and
manner testified I was not indifferent to her; still, when I remembered
that I had ever seen her surrounded by persons she was anxious to avoid,
a suspicion crossed me that perhaps I owed the little preference
she showed me less to any qualities I possessed than to my own
unobtrusiveness. These were galling and unpleasant reflections; and
whither they might have led me I know not, when the priest tapped with
his knuckles at my window, and called out--

'Captain, we shall be late if you don't hurry a bit; and I had rather be
behind time with his gracious Majesty himself than with old Sir Simon.'

I opened the window at once, and jumped out into the lawn.

'My dear father, I've been ready this half-hour, but fell into a dreamy
fit and forgot everything. Are we to walk it?'

'No, no; the distance is much greater than you think. Small as the bay
looks, it is a good three miles from this to Kilmorran; but here comes
your old friend the curriculus.'

I once more mounted to my old seat, and the priest, guiding the horse
down to the beach, selected the strand, from which the waves had just
receded, as the hardest road, and pressed on at a pace that showed his
desire to be punctual.

'Get along there. Nabocklish! How lazy the devil is! 'Faith, we'll be
late, do our best. Captain, darling, put your watch back a quarter of an
hour, and I'll stand to it that we are both by Dublin time.'

'Is he, then, so very particular/ said I, 'as all that comes to?'

'Particular, is it? 'Faith he is. Why, man, there is as much ringing
of bells before dinner in that house as if every room in it was crammed
with company. And the old butler will be there, all in black, and his
hair powdered, and beautiful silk stockings on his legs, every day in
the week, although, maybe, it is a brace of snipe will be all that is on
the table. Take the whip for a while, and lay into that baste--my heart
is broke flogging him.'

Had Sir Simon only watched the good priest's exertions for the preceding
quarter of an hour, he certainly would have had a hard heart if he
had criticised his punctuality. Shouting one moment, cursing the next,
thrashing away with his whip, and betimes striding over the splash-board
to give a kick with his foot, he undoubtedly spared nothing in either
voice or gesture.

'There, glory be to God!' cried he at last, as he turned sharp