do you mean not do?' asked Lockwood.

'Just let me finish. What I mean is this--if a man wants to marry an Irish
girl, he mustn't begin by asking leave to make love to her--'

'Mat's right!' cried the old lady stoutly.

'And above all, he oughtn't to think that the short cut to her heart is
through his broad acres.'

'Mat's right--quite right!'

'And besides this, that the more a man dwells on his belongings, and the
settlements, and such like, the more he seems to say, "I may not catch your
fancy in everything, I may not ride as boldly or dance as well as somebody
else, but never mind--you're making a very prudent match, and there is a
deal of pure affection in the Three per Cents."'

'And I'll give you another reason,' said Miss Betty resolutely. 'Kate
Kearney cannot have two husbands, and I've made her promise to marry my
nephew this morning.'

'What, without any leave of mine?' exclaimed Kearney.

'Just so, Mat. She'll marry him if you give your consent; but whether you
will or not, she'll never marry another.'

'Is there, then, a real engagement?' whispered Walpole to Kearney. 'Has my
friend here got his answer?'

'He'll not wait for another,' said Lockwood haughtily, as he arose. 'I'm
for town, Cecil,' whispered he.

'So shall I be this evening,' replied Walpole, in the same tone. 'I must
hurry over to London and see Lord Danesbury. I've my troubles too.' And so
saying, he drew his arm within the major's, and led him away; while Miss
Betty, with Kearney on one side of her and Dick on the other, proceeded to
recount the arrangement she had made to make over the Barn and the estate
to Gorman, it being her own intention to retire altogether from the world
and finish her days in the 'Retreat.'

'And a very good thing to do, too,' said Kearney, who was too much
impressed with the advantages of the project to remember his politeness.

'I have had enough of it, Mat,' added she, in a lugubrious tone; 'and it's
all backbiting, and lying, and mischief-making, and what's worse, by the
people who might live quietly and let others do the same!'

'What you say is true as the Bible.'

'It may be hard to do it, Mat Kearney, but I'll pray for them in my hours
of solitude, and in that blessed Retreat I'll ask for a blessing on
yourself, and that your heart, hard and cruel and worldly as it is now, may
be changed; and that in your last days--maybe on the bed of sickness--when
you are writhing and twisting with pain