he two
persons she loved best, after her husband, should make her happy by
marriage. She noted the kindlier feeling between them, and one evening
she spoke to Kathleen, most diplomatically as she believed.

"You are beginning to understand Denis, honey. The more you know him the
better you will like him."

It was an autumn evening, and the air was beginning to turn chilly. Mrs.
Quirk, who felt the cold, sat near a wood fire. Kathleen was beside the
window. Presently she would slip out to say a few words to Gerard, for
thus far had their intimacy gone that he frequently came and talked to
her in the avenue near the house. And these meetings were unknown to
Mrs. Quirk, who dozed in her chair, or to Samuel Quirk, smoking in his
den. There was nothing in their tetes-a-tetes, no word spoken, no action
done, that was wrong; but there was danger to the girl because of her
very innocence. She was this night working and watching. Outside a
bright moonlight lay on the trees and gardens, making the shadows darker
by the contrast. Gerard, who lurked in the shadow, would presently call
her from one of these.

"Mr. Denis Quirk is an honourable man, and I respect him," she said.

"It is near my heart----," Mrs. Quirk began. Then she paused.

"Yes?" asked Kathleen.

"Never mind, honey. If it is God's will, He will work it. It is
difficult to arrange things for Providence."

A low whistle from a deep shadow, like the note of a bird. Mrs. Quirk
fancied it was a bird, but Kathleen rose and slipped out.

"I shall be gone only a few minutes," she said.

CHAPTER XI.

TEMPTATION.

Kathleen O'Connor was walking slowly in the deep shadow of the avenue
with Gerard beside her. There was a stillness everywhere save for the
droning of flying beetles as they hurried past, apparently careless as
to where they might go. Beyond the avenue lawns, gardens, and trees were
distinctly outlined in the bright moonlight. From the pines and from
shrubs and flowers a sweet perfume arose, enervating, intoxicating, but
this was as nothing to the intoxicating power in the words of Gerard.
Never before had he or any man spoken to Kathleen as he did on this
night; never had she felt the same strange thrill as now. Not that his
words were evil or suggestive of evil; they were merely a powerful
appeal to the girl's affections. They appeared to come straight from his
heart, and they had a compelling effect upon her.

"I am going away from Grey Tow