till I've had word again from the Major.' Maybe his honour will be
wanting him, after all? But sure I must know at once, for the Limerick
man will be here at noon to-morrow, and I've promised to tell him one
way or another."

"Could you possibly wait until Saturday?" asked Honor.

The dealer shook his head.

"I can't afford to miss a sale," he replied. "I've had the cob on my
hands for some time; it's just eating its head off, and it's anxious I
am to get rid of it."

Honor was in a fever of excitement. Firefly, so spirited and so
aristocratic, whose delicately shaped limbs looked only fit for leaping
brooks, or cantering over the short grass on the uplands, to be sold to
a tradesman, and to run between the shafts of a cart that delivered
groceries! It seemed a degradation and an outrage. She could not dream
of allowing it; she must save him at any cost from such a fate.

"Must you absolutely have an answer to-day?" she asked.

"Yes, missy. I fear I couldn't put off Sullivan any longer than noon
to-morrow. He's a touchy man, and ready to carry his business
elsewhere."

"Very well, then, that settles the matter. We will take the cob. You
may send him over to the Castle this evening."

[Illustration: HONOR CONCLUDES THE PURCHASE OF FIREFLY]

Honor spoke in such a high-handed manner that the dealer never guessed
she was acting on her own authority. As she had made a special visit to
the farm, accompanied by her groom, he imagined she must have been
entrusted by Major Fitzgerald with full powers to buy the pony if she
wished.

"Many thanks to you, missy! It's the fine mistress you'll make for
Firefly. My respects to his honour, and the price shall be the same as
I was asking him before."

The price! Honor had quite forgotten that. Weighed against Firefly's
possible future, it had seemed an unimportant detail. She remembered
now, however, that her father had considered it extravagant, and
declared he could not afford it. The thought was sufficient to check
her joy suddenly, and to send her home in a sober frame of mind that
was well justified by the sequel.

Major Fitzgerald's wrath, when he arrived on the Friday and found the
black cob installed in the stable, was more serious than his daughter
had ever experienced before.

"It was a piece of unwarranted presumption!" he declared. "I shall not
allow you to keep the pony. It must be sent back to O'Connor's, and
resold at the first opportunity. As for you, th