rrival of these letters and her daily
'deviling' for her father were the only incidents in her even life.

One evening some few weeks after her return, she was in her room
preparing to begin her night's work with her father when she heard the
bell ring. That was unusual. Their callers were few. She heard the
outer door open--then the sound of a distant voice mingling with her
father's.

Then came a knock at her door.

"There's somebody outside here to see ye, Peg," said her father.

"Who is it, father?"

"A perfect sthranger--to me. Be quick now."

She heard her father's footsteps go into the little sitting-room and
then the hum of voices.

Without any apparent reason she suddenly felt a tenseness and
nervousness. She walked out of her room and paused a moment outside the
closed door of the sitting-room and listened.

Her father was talking. She opened the door and walked in. A tall,
bronzed man came forward to greet her. Her heart almost stopped. She
trembled violently. The next moment Jerry had clasped her hand in both
of his.

"How are you, Peg?"

He smiled down at her as he used to in Regal Villa: and behind the
smile there was a grave look in his dark eyes, and the old tone of
tenderness in his voice.

"How are you, Peg?" he repeated.

"I'm fine, Mr. Jerry," she replied in a daze. Then she looked at
O'Connell and she hurried on to say:

"This is my father--Sir Gerald Adair."

"We'd inthroduced ourselves already," said O'Connell, good-naturedly,
eyeing the unexpected visitor all the while. "And what might ye be
doin' in New York?" he asked.

"I have never seen America. I take an Englishman's interest in what we
once owned--"

"--And lost thro' misgovernment--"

"--Well, we'll say MISUNDERSTANDING--"

"--As they'll one day lose Ireland--"

"--I hope not. The two countries understand each other better every
day."

"It's taken centuries to do it."

"The more lasting will be the union."

As Peg watched Jerry she was wondering all the time why he was there.
This quiet, undemonstrative, unemotional man. Why?

The bell rang again. Peg started to go, but O'Connell stopped her.

"It's McGinnis. This is his night to call and tell me the politics of
the town. I'll take him into the next room, Peg, until yer visitor is
gone."

"Oh, please--" said Jerry hurriedly and taking a step toward the door.
"Allow me to call some other time."

"Stay where ye are!" cried O'Connell, hurrying out as the b