condition of the family. But the matter had not even been mentioned
to him by his daughter or her lover. Ussher was constantly at
Ballycloran,--was in the habit of riding over from Mohill, only three
miles, almost daily, when disengaged, giving his horse to Patsy, the
only male attendant at Ballycloran, and staying the whole morning, or
the evening, there, without invitation; and Larry, if he never seemed
particularly glad, at any rate never evinced any dislike to his
visits.

Whatever war the sub-inspector might wage against run spirits in
the mountains and bogs, he always appeared on good terms with it at
Ballycloran, and as the Macdermots had but little else to give in the
way of hospitality, this was well.

Young Thady could not but see that his sister was attached to Ussher;
but he knew that she could not do better than marry him, and if he
considered much about it, he thought that she was only taking her
fun out of it, as other girls did, and that it would all come right.
Thady was warmly attached to his sister; he had had no one else
really to love; he was too sullen at his prospects, too gloomy from
his situation, to have chosen for himself any loved one on whom to
expend his heart; he was of a disposition too saturnine, though an
Irishman, to go and look for love when it did not fall in his way,
and all that he had to give he gave to his sister. But it must be
remembered that poor Thady had no refinement; how should he? And
though he would let no one injure Feemy if he could help it, he
hardly knew how effectually to protect her. His suspicions were now
aroused by his counsellor Pat Brady; but the effect was rather to
create increased dislike in him against Ussher, than to give rise to
any properly concerted scheme for his sister's welfare.

On the evening previous to the fair at Mohill mentioned in the last
chapter, Captain Ussher with a party of his men had succeeded in
making a seizure of some half-malted barley in a cabin on the margin
of a little lake on the low mountains, which lay between Mohill and
Cashcarrigan. He had, as in these cases was always his practice,
received information from a spy in his pay, who accompanied him,
dressed as one of his own men, to prevent any chance of his being
recognised; this man's name was Cogan, and he had been in the habit
of buying illicit whiskey from the makers at a very cheap rate, and
carrying it round to the farmers' houses and towns for sale, whereby
he obta