s knees, and buried her face in her mother's lap, and Mrs. O'Hara
knew that that act of larceny had already been perpetrated.

And how should it have been otherwise? But of such stealing it is always
better that no mention should be made till the theft has been sanctified
by free gift. Till the loss has been spoken of and acknowledged, it may
in most cases be recovered. Had Neville never returned from Scroope, and
his name never been mentioned by the mother to her daughter, it may be
that Kate O'Hara would not have known that she had loved him. For a
while she would have been sad. For a month or two, as she lay wakeful in
her bed she would have thought of her dreams. But she would have thought
of them as only dreams. She would have been sure that she could have
loved him had any fair ending been possible for such love; but she would
have assured herself that she had been on her guard, and that she was
safe in spite of her dreams. But now the flame in her heart had been
confessed and in some degree sanctioned, and she would foster it rather
than quench it. Even should such a love be capable of no good fortune,
would it not be better to have a few weeks of happy dreaming than a
whole life that should be passionless? What could she do with her own
heart there, living in solitude, with none but the sea gulls to look at
her? Was it not infinitely better that she should give it away to such a
young god as this than let it feed upon itself miserably? Yes, she would
give it away;--but might it not be that the young god would not take the
gift?

On the third day after his arrival at Ennis, Neville was at Liscannor
with the priest. He little dreamed that the fact of his dining and
sleeping at Father Marty's house would be known to the ladies at Castle
Quin, and communicated from them to his aunt at Scroope Manor. Not that
he would have been deterred from accepting the priest's hospitality or
frightened into accepting that of the noble owner of the castle, had he
known precisely all that would be written about it. He would not have
altered his conduct in a matter in which he considered himself entitled
to regulate it, in obedience to any remonstrances from Scroope Manor.
Objections to the society of a Roman Catholic priest because of his
religion he would have regarded as old-fashioned fanaticism. As for
Earls and their daughters he would no doubt have enough of them in his
future life, and this special Earl and his daughters had