the corner where the lovers stood. Denis took his arm
from Mary's waist, and they moved a little apart. The man stopped when
he came to them.

"Good-evening, Denis!" he said. "Good-evening, Miss Drennan!"

The greeting was friendly enough, but he looked at the girl with
unfriendly eyes.

"Don't forget the meeting to-night, Denis!" he said. "It's in Flaherty's
barn at nine o'clock. Mind, now! It's important, and you'll be
expected!"

The words were friendly, but there was the hint of a threat in the way
they were spoken. Without waiting for an answer, he walked on quickly
towards the town. Mary stretched out her hands and clung tight to her
lover's arm. She looked up at him, and fear was in her face.

"What is it, Denis?" she asked. "What does Michael Murnihan want with
you?"

Women in Ireland have reason to be frightened now. Their lovers, their
husbands, and their sons may be members of a secret society, or they may
incur the enmity of desperate men. No woman knows for certain that the
life of the man she loves is safe.

"What's the meeting, Denis?" she whispered. "What does he want you to
do?"

He neither put his arm round her nor took her hand again.

"It's nothing, Mary," he said. "It's nothing at all!"

But she was more disquieted at his words, for he turned his face away
from her when he spoke.

"What is, it?" she whispered again. "Tell me, Denis!"

"It's a gentleman down from Dublin that's to talk to the boys to-night,"
he said, "and the members of the club must be there to listen to him. It
will be about learning Irish that he'll talk, maybe, or not enlisting in
the English Army."

"Is that all, Denis? Are you sure now that's all? Will he not want you
to do anything?"

That part of the country was quiet enough. But elsewhere there were
raidings of houses, attacks on police barracks, shootings, woundings,
murders; and afterwards arrests, imprisonments, and swift, wild
vengeance taken. Mary was afraid of what the man from Dublin might want.
Denis turned to her, and she could see that he was frightened too.

"Mary, Mary!" he said. "Whatever comes or goes, there'll be no harm done
to you or yours!"

She loosed her hold on his arm and turned from him with a sigh.

"I must be going from you now, Denis," she said, "Mother will be looking
for me, and the dear God knows what she'd say if she knew I'd been here
talking to you."

Mrs. Drennan knew very well where her daughter had been. She spoke her