rself, 'I will
do it.'

Donogan clasped her to his heart as she said it, and held her some seconds
in a fast embrace. 'At last I know what it is to love,' cried he, with
rapture.

'Look there!' cried she, suddenly disengaging herself from his arm. 'They
are in the drawing-room already. I can see them as they pass the windows. I
must go back, if it be for a moment, as I should be missed.'

'Can I let you leave me now?' he said, and the tears were in his eyes as he
spoke.

'I have given you my word, and you may trust me,' said she, as she held out
her hand.

'I was forgetting this document: this is the lease or the agreement I told
you of.' She took it, and hurried away.

In less than five minutes afterwards she was among the company in the
drawing-room.

'Here have I been singing a rebel ballad, Nina,' said Kate, 'and not
knowing the while it was Mr. Atlee who wrote it.'

'What, Mr. Atlee,' cried Nina, 'is the "Time to begin" yours?' And then,
without waiting for an answer, she seated herself at the piano, and
striking the chords of the accompaniment with a wild and vigorous hand, she
sang--

'If the moment is come and the hour to need us,
If we stand man to man, like kindred and kin;
If we know we have one who is ready to lead us,
What want we for more than the word to begin?'

The wild ring of defiance in which her clear, full voice gave out these
words, seemed to electrify all present, and to a second or two of perfect
silence a burst of applause followed, that even Curtis, with all his
loyalty, could not refrain from joining.

'Thank God, you're not a man, Miss Nina!' cried he fervently.

'I'm not sure she's not more dangerous as she is,' said Lord Kilgobbin.
'There's people out there in the bog, starving and half-naked, would face
the Queen's Guards if they only heard her voice to cheer them on. Take my
word for it, rebellion would have died out long ago in Ireland if there
wasn't the woman's heart to warm it.'

'If it were not too great a liberty, Mademoiselle Kostalergi,' said Joe,'
I should tell you that you have not caught the true expression of my song.
The brilliant bravura in which you gave the last line, immensely exciting
as it was, is not correct. The whole force consists in the concentrated
power of a fixed resolve--the passage should be subdued.'

An insolent toss of the head was all Nina's reply, and there was a
stillness in the room, as, exchanging looks with each other, the