.'

'By what good fortune have you been so favoured as this?'

'Ostensibly to finish a long conversation or conference with papa, but
really and truthfully, I suspect, to meet Mademoiselle Kostalergi, whose
absence has piqued him.'

'Yes, piqued is the word. It is the extreme of the pain he is capable of
feeling. What has he said of it?'

'Nothing beyond the polite regrets that courtesy could express, and then
adverted to something else.'

'With an abruptness that betrayed preparation?'

'Perhaps so.'

'Not perhaps, but certainly so. Vanity such as his has no variety. It
repeats its moods over and over; but why do we talk of him? I have other
things to tell you of. You know that man who came here with Dick. That Mr.
----'

'I know--I know,' cried the other hurriedly, 'what of him?'

'He joined me this morning, on my way through the bog, and drove with me to
Cruhan.'

'Indeed!' muttered Kate thoughtfully.

'A strange, wayward, impulsive sort of creature--unlike any
one--interesting from his strong convictions--'

'Did he convert you to any of his opinions, Nina?'

'You mean, make a rebel of me. No; for the simple reason that I had none to
surrender. I do not know what is wrong here, nor what people would say was
right.'

'You are aware, then, who he is?'

'Of course I am. I was on the terrace that night when your brother told you
he was Donogan--the famous Fenian Donogan. The secret was not intended for
me, but I kept it all the same, and I took an interest in the man from the
time I heard it.'

'You told him, then, that you knew who he was.'

'To be sure I did, and we are fast friends already; but let me go on
with my narrative. Some excitement, some show of disturbance at Cruhan,
persuaded him that what he called--I don't know why--the Crowbar Brigade
was at work and that the people were about to be turned adrift on the world
by the landlord, and hearing a wild shout from the village, he insisted on
going back to learn what it might mean. He had not left me long, when your
late steward, Gill, came up with several policemen, to search for the
convict Donogan. They had a warrant to apprehend him, and some information
as to where he had been housed and sheltered.'

'Here--with us?'

'Here--with you! Gill knew it all. This, then, was the reason for that
excitement we had seen in the village--the people had heard the police were
coming, but for what they knew not; of course the only thought was for