to get him up afterwards, for the herd went over
him as the man drov' them off; and what between bruises and fear, he
kept his bed two days; but the worst of it was, the spalpeens said
that they paid threepence apiece for the bullsheens every night for the
grass, and it was to me they gave it."

"Which, of course, was untrue?" said Linton, smiling knowingly.

"By coorse it was!" said Tom, with a laugh, whose meaning there was no
mistaking; "and so, I 'm to be turned out of 'the gate,' and to lose my
few acres of ground, and be thrun on the wide world, just for sake of an
attorney!"

"It is very hard,--very hard indeed."

"Is n't it now, your honer?"

"A case of destitution, completely; what the newspapers call
'extermination.'"

"Exactly, sir,--tarnination, and nothing less."

"But how comes it that you are up here, on that account?"

"I was thinking, sir, if I saw Miss Mary, and could get her to spake a
word to the master,--they say she can do what she plazes with him."

"Indeed!--who says so?"

"The servants' hall says it; and so does Mr. Corrigan's ould butler. He
towld me the other day that he hoped he 'd be claning the plate up at
the big house before he died."

"How so?" said Linton, affecting not to catch the intention of the
remark.

"Just that he was to be butler at the hall when the master was married
to Miss Mary."

"And so, I suppose, this is very likely to happen?"

"Sure yer honer knows betther than ignorant craytures like us; but faix,
if walking about in the moonlight there, among the flowers, and talking
together like whisperin', is any sign, I would n't wonder if it came
about."

"Indeed! and they have got that far?"

"Ay, faith!" said Tom, with a significance of look only an Irishman or
an Italian can call up.

"Well, I had no suspicion of this," said Linton, with a frankness meant
to invite further confidence.

"An' why would yer honer? Sure was n't it always on the evenings, when
the company was all together in the great house, that Mr. Cashel used
to steal down here and tie his horse to the wicket, and then gallop back
again at full speed, so that the servants towld me he was never missed
out of the room!"

"And does she like him,--do they say she likes him?"

"Not like him wid a place such as this!" said Tom, waving his hand
towards the wide-spreading fields and woods of the demesne. "Bathershin!
sure the Queen of England might be proud of it!"

"Very true," said Linto