ent persons, attributing the difference solely
to the rank and wealth of the new peer. Poor Simpkinson had expected
long whispered confidential conversations respecting the ladies of
Ardkill; but the Earl had barely thanked him for his journey; and the
whispered confidence, which would have been so delightful, was at once
impossible. "By Heaven, there's nothing like rank to spoil a fellow. He
was a good fellow once." So spoke Captain Johnstone, as the two officers
retreated together from the Earl's room.

And the Earl also saw Mr. Crowe the attorney. Mr. Crowe recognized at
its full weight the importance of a man whom he might now call "My Lord"
as often as he pleased, and as to whose pecuniary position he had made
some gratifying inquiries. A very few words sufficed. Captain O'Hara
had taken his departure, and the money would be paid regularly. Mr.
Crowe also noticed the stern silence of the man, but thought that it
was becoming in an Earl with so truly noble a property. Of the Castle
Quin people who could hardly do more than pay their way like country
gentlefolk, and who were mere Irish, Mr. Crowe did not think much.

Every hour that brought the lord nearer to Liscannor added a weight to
his bosom. As he drove his gig along the bleak road to Ennistimon his
heart was very heavy indeed. At Maurice's mills, the only resting-place
on the road, it had been his custom to give his horse a mouthful of
water; but he would not do so now though the poor beast would fain
have stopped there. He drove the animal on ruthlessly, himself driven
by a feeling of unrest which would not allow him to pause. He hated
the country now, and almost told himself that he hated all whom it
contained. How miserable was his lot, that he should have bound himself
in the opening of his splendour, in the first days of a career that
might have been so splendid, to misfortune that was squalid and mean as
this. To him, to one placed by circumstances as he was placed, it was
squalid and mean. By a few soft words spoken to a poor girl whom he
had chanced to find among the rocks he had so bound himself with vile
manacles, had so crippled, hampered and fettered himself, that he
was forced to renounce all the glories of his station. Wealth almost
unlimited was at his command,--and rank, and youth, and such personal
gifts of appearance and disposition as best serve to win general love.
He had talked to his brother of his unfitness for his earldom; but he
could