ave taken a seat
inside also, where you, of course, could at once have watched the
old woman, and talked with the young one."

"I don't think that you would have done anything of the sort,
O'Neil," Desmond said gravely, "but would have seen, as I did,
that it was better that she should travel alone, with the old
woman, till she reached her father's house. Scandal will be busy
enough with her name, in any case, and it is as well that it
should not be said that she arrived home, in a carriage, with a
young officer of O'Brien's Irish regiment."

"By my faith, Kennedy, it seems to me that you are a Saint Anthony
and a Bayard rolled into one. But, seriously, you are undoubtedly
right. Well, it all depends upon who was the man who carried her
off, as to whether you were fortunate or unfortunate in thus
having thwarted his designs. If he is some adventurer, your action
will gain you heaps of credit. If, on the other hand, it was one
of the king's favourites, seeking to mend his fortunes by
marrying, it is probable that you will have made a dangerous
enemy--nay, more, have drawn upon yourself the king's displeasure.
I should think it likely that, before attempting so desperate an
action as the carrying off of the Baron Pointdexter's daughter,
such a man would have assured himself that the king would not view
the enterprise with displeasure.

"We may assume that he would not inform His Majesty of any
particulars, but would put it, hypothetically, that as he was
getting into sore straits, he thought of mending his fortunes by
carrying off an heiress--not, of course, one of those of whose
hands the king had the disposal; and that he trusted that, if he
succeeded, His Majesty would not view the matter as a grave
offence. From what I know of Louis, he would reply gravely: 'I
should be obliged (duke or viscount, as the case might be) to
express very grave displeasure, and to order you to leave the
court for a time; but, as the harm would be done, and the young
lady married to you, it might be that, in time, I should pardon
the offence.'

"If this is how things have gone, you may be sure that the king
will not view, with satisfaction, the man who has interfered with
his favourite's plan for mending his fortunes."

Desmond shrugged his shoulders.

"The king's dissatisfaction would matter very little to me," he
said, "especially as he could not openly manifest it, without
making it apparent that he had approved of the scheme."