not the man to quail under any
calamity; the same to-day, to-morrow, and the next day. Sell him out or
buy him in, and you 'll never know by his face that he felt it."

He spoke very little on that morning, and scarcely tasted his breakfast.
His dress was more careful than usual; and Bella, half by way of saying
something, asked if he were going into Dublin.

"Into Dublin! I suppose I am, indeed," said he, curtly, as though giving
a very obvious reply. "Maybe," added he, after a few minutes,--"maybe
you forget this is the seventeenth, and that this is the day for the
sale."

"I did remember it," said she, with a faint sigh, but not daring to ask
how his presence there was needed.

"And you were going to say," added he, with a bitter smile, "what did
that matter to me, and that wasn't wanted. Neither I am,--I 'm neither
seller nor buyer; but still I 'm the last of the name that lived
there,--I was Kellett of Kellett's Court, and there 'll never be another
to say the same, and I owe it to myself to be there to-day,--just as I
'd attend a funeral,--just as I 'd follow the hearse."

"It will only give you needless pain, dearest father," said she,
soothingly; "pray do not go."

"Faith, I'll go if it gave me a fit," said he, fiercely. "They may say
when they go home, 'Paul Kellett was there the whole time, as cool as
_I_ am now; you 'd never believe it was the old family place--the house
his ancestors lived in for centuries--was up for sale; there he was,
calm and quiet If that is n't courage, tell me what is.'"

"And yet I 'd rather you did not go, father. The world has trials enough
to tax our energies, that we should not go in search of them."

"That's a woman's way of looking at it," said he, contemptuously.

"A man with a man's heart likes to meet danger, just to see how he 'll
treat it."

"But remember, father--"

"There, now," said he, rising from the table, "if you talked till you
were tired, I 'd go still. My mind is made up on it."

Bella turned away her head, and stole her handkerchief to her eyes.

"I know very well," burst he in, bitterly, "that the blackguard
newspapers to-morrow will just be as ready to abuse me for it. It would
have been more dignified, or more decent, or something or other, if Mr.
Kellett had not appeared at the sale; but I 'll go, nevertheless, if it
was only to see the man that's to take our place there! Wait dinner for
me till six,--that is, if there 's any dinner at all." A