a theatre. But now that
she's to be relegated to private life she begins to feel that she
ought to look after someone about her own age."

"Oh, indeed! Is this her message?"

"Well; yes. It is her message. I shouldn't in such a matter invent
it all if she hadn't sent me. I don't know, now I think of it, that
she did say anything about her own age. But yet she did," remarked
Mr. O'Mahony, calling to mind the assertion made by Rachel that she
wanted Frank Jones. Frank Jones was about her own age, whereas the
lord was as old as her father.

"Upon my word, I am much obliged to Miss O'Mahony."

"She certainly has meant to be as courteous as she knows how," said
Mr. O'Mahony.

"Perhaps on your side of the water they have different ideas of
courtesy. The young lady sends me word that now she means to retire
from the stage she finds I am too old for her."

"Not that at all," said Mr. O'Mahony. But he said it in an apologetic
tone, as though admitting the truth.

Lord Castlewell, as he sat there for a few moments, acknowledged to
himself that Rachel possessed certain traits of character which had
something fine about them, from whatever side of the water she had
come. He was a reasonable man, and he considered that there was a
way made for him to escape from this trouble which was not to have
been expected. Had Rachel been an English girl, or an Italian, or a
Norwegian, he would hardly have been let off so easily. As he was
an earl, and about to be a marquis, and as he was a rich man, such
suitors are not generally given up in a hurry. This young lady had
sent word to him that she had lost her voice permanently and was
therefore obliged to surrender that high title, that noble name, and
those golden hopes which had glistened before her eyes. No doubt he
had offered to marry her because of her singing;--that is, he would
not have so offered had she not have been a singer. But he could not
have departed from his engagement simply because she had become dumb.
He quite understood that Mr. O'Mahony would have been there with
his cowhide, and though he was by no means a coward be did not wish
to encounter the American Member of the House of Commons in all
his rage. In fact, he had been governed in his previous ideas by a
feeling of propriety; but propriety certainly did not demand him to
marry a young lady who had sent to tell him that he was too old. And
this irate member of the House of Commons had come to bring him the
me