given all he
possessed to have been able to ask after her,--to have seen any one who
could have told him of her,--how she bore up in her dread hour of trial;
but none was to be seen. More than once he adventured to approach the
door, and timidly stood, uncertain what to do, and then, cautiously
retracing his steps, he regained the road, again to resume his lonely
watch. And so the noon passed, and the day waned, and evening drew nigh,
and there he still lingered. He thought that when night closed in, some
flickering light might give sign of life within,--some faint indication
of her his heart was full of; but all remained dark, silent, and
cheerless. Even yet could he not bear to leave the spot, and it was
already far into the night ere he turned his steps towards Dublin.

Let us go back for a moment to Mr. Davenport Dunn, who was not the only
occupant of the handsome chariot that rolled smoothly back to town. Mr.
Driscoll sat in one corner; the blind carefully down, so as to screen
him from view.

"And that was Conway!" said he, as soon as Dunn had taken his seat.
"Wasn't I right when I said you were sure to catch him here?"

"I knew as much myself," said Dunn, curtly.

"Well, and what is he like?--is he a chap easy to deal with?--is he any
way deep?"

"He's as proud as Lucifer,--that 's all I can make out of him; and there
are few things harder to manage than real pride."

"Ay, if you can't get round it," said Driscoll, with a sly twinkle of
the eye.

"I have no time for such management," said Dunn, stiffly.

"Well, how did he take what you said to him? Did he seem as if he 'd
enter into the business kindly?"

"You don't suppose that I spoke to him about his family or his fortune,
do you? Is it in a chance meeting like this that I could approach a
subject full of difficulty and complication? You have rare notions of
delicacy and address, Driscoll!"

"God help me! I'm a poor crayture, but somehow I get along for all that,
and I 'm generally as far on my road at the end of the day as them that
travels with four posters."

"You'd make a pretty mess of whatever required a light hand and a fine
touch, that I can tell you. The question here lies between a peer of the
realm with twelve thousand a year, and a retired soldier with eightpence
a day pension. It does not demand much thought to see where the balance
inclines."

"You're forgetting one trifling matter. Who has the right to be the peer
with the twelv