h for truth,' said Lockwood, as he broke
his egg in leisurely fashion.

'They were scarcely able to provide a special correspondent for the event,'
said Atlee; 'but I take it they give the main facts pretty accurately and
fairly.'

'Indeed!' said Lockwood, more struck by the manner than by the words of the
speaker. 'They mention, then, that my friend received a bad fracture of the
forearm.'

'No, I don't think they do; at least so far as I have seen. They speak of
a night attack on Kilgobbin Castle, made by an armed party of six or seven
men with faces blackened, and their complete repulse through the heroic
conduct of a young lady.'

'The main facts, then, include no mention of poor Walpole and his
misfortune?'

'I don't think that we mere Irish attach any great importance to a broken
arm, whether it came of a cricket-ball or gun; but we do interest ourselves
deeply when an Irish girl displays feats of heroism and courage that men
find it hard to rival.'

'It was very fine,' said Lockwood gravely.

'Fine! I should think it was fine!' burst out Atlee. 'It was so fine that,
had the deed been done on the other side of this narrow sea, the nation
would not have been satisfied till your Poet Laureate had commemorated it
in verse.'

'Have they discovered any traces of the fellows?' said Lockwood, who
declined to follow the discussion into this channel.

'My father has gone over to Moate to-day,' said Kearney, now speaking for
the first time, 'to hear the examination of two fellows who have been taken
up on suspicion.'

'You have plenty of this sort of thing in your country,' said Atlee to
Nina.

'Where do you mean when you say my country?'

'I mean Greece.'

'But I have not seen Greece since I was a child, so high; I have lived
always in Italy.'

'Well, Italy has Calabria and the Terra del Lavoro.'

'And how much do we in Rome know about either?'

'About as much,' said Lockwood, 'as Belgravia does of the Bog of Allen.'

'You'll return to your friends in civilised life with almost the fame of an
African traveller, Major Lockwood,' said Atlee pertly.

'If Africa can boast such hospitality, I certainly rather envy than
compassionate Doctor Livingstone,' said he politely.

'Somebody,' said Kearney dryly, 'calls hospitality the breeding of the
savage.'

'But I deny that we are savage,' cried Atlee. 'I contend for it that
all our civilisation is higher, and that class for class we are in a
more advanced