ides,
I promised my uncle a visit before tea-time, and as I shall not see you
again, I will wish you now a pleasant journey and a safe return.'

'Wish me success in my expedition,' said he eagerly.

'Yes, I will wish that also. One word more. I am very short-sighted, as you
may see, but you wear a ring of great beauty. May I look at it?'

'It is pretty, certainly. It was a present Walpole made me. I am not sure
that there is not a story attached to it, though I don't know it.'

'Perhaps it may be linked with the "entanglement,'" said she, laughing
softly.

'For aught I know, so it may. Do you admire it?'

'Immensely,' said she, as she held it to the light.

'You can add immensely to its value if you will,' said he diffidently.

'In what way?'

[Illustration: 'You wear a ring of great beauty--may I look at it?']

'By keeping it, Lady Maude,' said he; and for once his cheek coloured with
the shame of his own boldness.

'May I purchase it with one of my own? Will you have this, or this?' said
she hurriedly.

'Anything that once was yours,' said he, in a mere whisper.

'Good-bye, Mr. Atlee.'

And he was alone!

CHAPTER XXXIV

AT TEA-TIME

The family at Kilgobbin Castle were seated at tea when Dick Kearney's
telegram arrived. It bore the address, 'Lord Kilgobbin,' and ran thus:
'Walpole wishes to speak with you, and will come down with me on Friday;
his stay cannot be beyond one day.--RICHARD KEARNEY.'

'What can he want with me?' cried Kearney, as he tossed over the despatch
to his daughter. 'If he wants to talk over the election, I could tell him
per post that I think it a folly and an absurdity. Indeed, if he is not
coming to propose for either my niece or my daughter, he might spare
himself the journey.'

'Who is to say that such is not his intention, papa?' said Kate merrily.
'Old Catty had a dream about a piebald horse and a haystack on fire, and
something about a creel of duck eggs, and I trust that every educated
person knows what _they_ mean.'

'I do not,' cried Nina boldly.

'Marriage, my dear. One is marriage by special license, with a bishop or a
dean to tie the knot; another is a runaway match. I forget what the eggs
signify.'

'An unbroken engagement,' interposed Donogan gravely, 'so long as none of
them are smashed.'

'On the whole, then, it is very promising tidings,' said Kate.

'It may be easy to be more promising than the election,' said the old man.

'I'm not flatt