turned his
eyes toward it. The hounds, trooping meekly round his horse, went
aside to the well, and drank long and thirstily. He did not wait for
them. He put from his mind the memory of the last time he had seen
from that hill-side the sun go down. Rather he set his thoughts,
resolutely, on that other last time, in the library of Mount Music.
And he called up Tishy's brilliant face, framed in the furs that he
had given her, that it might help him to drive away other memories. He
was very fond of Tishy, he told himself; anyway, he was booked to
marry her next week.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

The small town of Cluhir, ever avid, as are all small towns, of
sensation, was, did it only know it, about to enjoy a week that would
long be remembered in its history. Miss Mangan's marriage, which alone
would have made an epoch, was fixed for Thursday, December 12th; but
this, it need scarcely be said, was a matter that, though
soul-stirring, was devoid of the element of surprise. Not so, however,
was the sudden evacuation of Mount Music. Father Hogan's indefinite
information was as much as was generally known, but much that was not
generally known was confided to the discreet ears of Father Greer, and
he, almost alone of the inhabitants of Cluhir, was not surprised when
the news went abroad that the Mount Music carriage had conveyed Major
Dick and Lady Isabel to the station, and that so vast a mass of
luggage had accompanied them as to betoken a prolonged absence.

That the news should, in the first instance, have been communicated to
Father Greer by Dr. Mangan, was not remarkable, since Dr. Mangan's
professional advice had usefully reinforced his unofficial advocacy of
the move, and Father Greer was rarely ignorant for long of matters
that were found interesting by the Big Doctor.

Not merely for the sake of Major Talbot-Lowry's health had this
upheaval taken place; an even more imperious factor had been the state
of the family finances. The cloud of debt that had so long brooded
over Mount Music was lower and darker than ever it had been before.
Dick had at length been coerced into opening negotiations for the sale
of his property to his tenants, but although, in the fullness of time,
these might be expected to bear fruit, they were of no more immediate
assistance to this over-weighted survivor of a prehistoric species,
than is the suggestion to a horse to live in order that he may get
oats.

There was pressure in the air