tour to Limerick, got them back this
morning, and came on. And what are you after next?'

'Home,' jerked out Lucy, without looking up, thinking how welcome he
would have been yesterday, without the goods.

'Yes, home,' said Horatia. 'This abominable sprain will hinder my
throwing a line, or jolting on Irish roads, and if Cilla is to be in
agonies when she sees a man on the horizon, we might as well never have
come.'

'Will you help me to carry home this poor invalid warrior, Owen?' said
Lucilla; 'she will permit you.'

'I'll put you into the steamer,' said Owen; 'but you see, I have made my
arrangements for doing Killarney and the rest of it.'

'I declare,' said Rashe, recovering benevolence with comfort, 'if they
would send Scott from the castle to meet me at Holyhead, Cilly might as
well go on with you. You would be sufficient to keep off the Calthorps.'

'I'm afraid that's no go,' hesitated Owen. 'You see I had made my plans,
trusting to your bold assertions that you would suffer no one to
approach.'

'Oh! never mind. It was no proposal of mine. I've had enough of
Ireland,' returned Lucy, somewhat aggrieved.

'How soon shall you be sufficiently repaired for a start, Ratia?' asked
Owen, turning quickly round to her. 'To-morrow? No! Well, I'll come
over and see.'

'Going away?' cried the ladies, by no means willing to part with their
guardian.

'Yes, I must. Expecting that we should be parallels never meeting, I had
to provide for myself.'

'I see,' said Rashe; 'he has a merry party at Newragh Bridge, and will
sit up over whist and punch till midnight!'

'You don't pretend to put yourselves in competition,' said he, snatching
at the idea hastily.

'Oh! no,' said his sister, with an annoyed gesture. 'I never expect you
to prefer me and my comfort to any one.'

'Indeed, Cilla, I'm sorry,' he answered gently, but in perplexity, 'but I
never reckoned on being wanted, and engagements are engagements.'

'I'm sure I don't want you when anything pleasanter is going forward,'
she answered, with vexation in her tone.

'I'll be here by eleven or twelve,' he replied, avoiding the altercation;
'but I must get back now. I shall be waited for.'

'Who is it that can't wait?' asked Rashe.

'Oh! just an English acquaintance of mine. There, goodbye. I wish I had
come in time to surprise the modern St. Kevin! Are you sure there was no
drowning in the lake?'

'You know it was blessed to drown no one