iend of yours you have so
strangely escaped from to-day.'

'Mr. Walpole?'

'Yes, Mr. Walpole; to meet whom would not have involved _you_, at least, in
any contrariety.'

'Is this a question, sir? Am I to suppose your curiosity asks an answer
here?'

'I am not so bold; but I own my suspicions have mastered my discretion,
and, seeing you here this morning, I did think you did not care to meet
him.'

'Well, sir, you were right. I am not sure that _my_ reasons for avoiding
him were exactly as strong as _yours_, but they sufficed for _me_.'

There was something so like reproof in the way these words were uttered
that Donogan had not courage to speak for some time after. At last he said,
'In one thing, your Greeks have an immense advantage over us here. In your
popular songs you could employ your own language, and deal with your own
wrongs in the accents that became them. _We_ had to take the tongue of the
conqueror, which was as little suited to our traditions as to our feelings,
and travestied both. Only fancy the Greek vaunting his triumphs or
bewailing his defeats in Turkish!'

'What do you know of Mr. Walpole?' asked she abruptly.

'Very little beyond the fact that he is an agent of the Government, who
believes that he understands the Irish people.'

'Which you are disposed to doubt?'

'I only know that I am an Irishman, and I do not understand them. An organ,
however, is not less an organ that it has many "stops."'

'I am not sure Cecil Walpole does not read you aright. He thinks that you
have a love of intrigue and plot, but without the conspirator element that
Southern people possess; and that your native courage grows impatient at
the delays of mere knavery, and always betrays you.'

'That distinction was never _his_--that was your own.'

'So it was; but he adopted it when he heard it.'

'That is the way the rising politician is educated,' cried Donogan. 'It is
out of these petty thefts he makes all his capital, and the poor people
never suspect how small a creature can be their millionaire.'

'Is not that our village yonder, where I see the smoke?'

'Yes; and there on the stile sits your little groom awaiting you. I shall
get down here.'

'Stay where you are, sir. It is by your blunder, not by your presence, that
you might compromise me.' And this time her voice caught a tone of sharp
severity that suppressed reply.

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE EXCURSION

The little village of Cruhan-bawn, i