if I can't find them,' cried Kate, rising and hastening away.

For some seconds after she left the room there was perfect silence. Walpole
tried to catch Nina's eye before he spoke, but she continued steadily to
look down, and did not once raise her lids.

'Is she not very nice--is she not very beautiful?' asked she, in a low
voice.

'It is of _you_ I want to speak.'

And he drew his chair closer to her, and tried to take her hand, but she
withdrew it quickly, and moved slightly away.

'If you knew the delight it is to me to see you again, Nina--well,
Mademoiselle Kostalergi. Must it be Mademoiselle?'

'I don't remember it was ever "Nina,"' said she coldly.

'Perhaps only in my thoughts. To my heart, I can swear, you were Nina. But
tell me how you came here, and when, and for how long, for I want to know
all. Speak to me, I beseech you. She'll be back in a moment, and when shall
I have another instant alone with you like this? Tell me how you came
amongst them, and are they really all rebels?'

Kate entered at the instant, saying, 'I can't find it, but I'll have a good
search to-morrow, for I know it's there.'

'Do, by all means, Kate, for Mr. Walpole is very anxious to learn if he be
admitted legitimately into this brotherhood--whatever it be; he has just
asked me if we were really all rebels here.'

'I trust he does not suppose I would deceive him,' said Kate gravely. 'And
when he hears you sing "The blackened hearth--the fallen roof," he'll not
question _you_, Nina.--Do you know that song, Mr. Walpole?'

He smiled as he said 'No.'

'Won't it be so nice,' said she, 'to catch a fresh ingenuous Saxon
wandering innocently over the Bog of Allen, and send him back to his
friends a Fenian!'

'Make me what you please, but don't send me away.'

'Tell me, really, what would you do if we made you take the oath?'

'Betray you, of course, the moment I got up to Dublin.'

Nina's eyes flashed angrily, as though such jesting was an offence.

'No, no, the shame of such treason would be intolerable; but you'd go your
way and behave as though you never saw us.'

'Oh, he could do that without the inducement of a perjury,' said Nina, in
Italian; and then added aloud, 'Let's go and make some music. Mr. Walpole
sings charmingly, Kate, and is very obliging about it--at least he used to
be.'

[Illustration: 'How that song makes me wish we were back again where I
heard it first']

'I am all that I used to be--towards t