ther!"

"I know pretty well what you would be saying. Our young folk grow old
quicker a long sight than yours do. Now your girls here are as sweet
as primroses out of the wood. But Rachel is like a rose that has been
brought up to stand firm on its own bush. I'm not a bit afraid of
her. Nor yet is your son. She looks as though you might blow her away
with the breath from your mouth. You try her, and you'll find that
she'll want a deal of blowing."

"Does not a young girl lose something of the aroma of her youth by
seeing too much of the world too soon?"

"How old do you expect her to be when she's to die?"

"Rachel! How can I tell? She is only as yet entering upon life, and
her health seems to be quite confirmed."

"The best confirmed I ever knew in my life. She never has a day's
illness. Taking all the chances one way and another, shall we say
sixty?"

"More than that, I should think," said Mr. Jones.

"Say sixty. She may fall down a trap in the theatre, or be drowned in
one of your Cunarders."

"The Cunard steamers never drown anybody," said Mr. Jones.

"Well, then, a White Star--or any cockle-shell you may please to
name. We'll put her down for sixty as an average."

"I don't know what you are driving at," said Mr. Jones.

"She has lived a third of her life already, and you expect her to
know nothing, so that the aroma may still cling to her. Aroma does
very well for earls' daughters and young marchionesses, though as
far as I can learn, it's going out of fashion with them. What has an
American girl to do with aroma, who's got her bread to earn? She's
got to look to her conduct, and to be sharp at the same time. Mr.
Mahomet M. Moss will rob her of seventy-five cents out of every
dollar for the next twelve months. In three years' time he'll rob her
of nothing. Only that she knows what conduct means, he'd have to look
very sharp to keep his own."

"It is not natural," said Mr. Jones.

"But it's American. Marvels are not natural, and we are marvellous
people. I don't know much about aroma, but I think you'll find Rachel
will come out of the washing without losing much colour in the
process."

Then the two friends parted, and Mr. O'Mahony went back to Galway,
preparatory to his journey to London.

CHAPTER VI.

RACHEL AND HER LOVERS.

On the day following that of O'Mahony's return to Galway, he, and
his daughter, and Frank Jones were together at the Galway Station
preparatory to the departu