she Miss O'Shea's Kattoo?'

'That she is, sir, and I'm her nephew.'

'Are you?' said Kearney dryly.

The young fellow was so terribly pulled up by the unexpected repulse--more
marked even by the look than the words of the other--that he sat unable
to utter a syllable. 'I had hoped, sir,' said he at last, 'that I had not
outgrown your recollection, as I can promise none of your former kindness
to me has outgrown mine.'

'But it took you three weeks to recall it, all the same,' said Kearney.

'It is true, sir, I am very nearly so long here; but my aunt, whose guest I
am, told me I must be called on first; that--I'm sure I can't say for whose
benefit it was supposed to be--I should not make the first visit; in fact,
there was some rule about the matter, and that I must not contravene it.
And although I yielded with a very bad grace, I was in a measure under
orders, and dared not resist.'

'She told you, of course, that we were not on our old terms: that there
was a coldness between the families, and we had seen nothing of each other
lately?'

'Not a word of it, sir.'

'Nor of any reason why you should not come here as of old?'

'None, on my honour; beyond this piece of stupid etiquette, I never heard
of anything like a reason.'

'I am all the better pleased with my old neighbour,' said Kearney, in his
more genial tone. 'Not, indeed, that I ought ever to have distrusted her,
but for all that--Well, never mind,' muttered he, as though debating the
question with himself, and unable to decide it, 'you are here now--eh! You
are here now.'

'You almost make me suspect, sir, that I ought not to be here now.'

'At all events, if you were waiting for me you wouldn't be here. Is not
that true, young gentleman?'

'Quite true, sir, but not impossible to explain.' And he now flung himself
to the ground, and with the rein over his arm, came up to Kearney's side.
'I suppose, but for an accident, I should have gone on waiting for that
visit you had no intention to make me, and canvassing with myself how long
you were taking to make up your mind to call on me, when I heard only last
night that some noted rebel--I'll remember his name in a minute or two--was
seen in the neighbourhood, and that the police were on his track with a
warrant, and even intended to search for him here.'

'In my house--in Kilgobbin Castle?'

'Yes, here in your house, where, from a sure information, he had been
harboured for some days. This fellow