oot the
others who are just as much Irish as themselves? Why do hungry people kill
the cattle and never eat them? And why don't the English go away and leave
a country where nobody likes them? If there be a reason for these things,
let me hear it.'

'Bye-bye,' said Kate, waving her hand, as she turned away.

'You are so ungenerous,' cried Nina, hurrying after her; 'I am a stranger,
and would naturally like to learn all that I could of the country and the
people; here is a gentleman full of the very knowledge I am seeking. He
knows all about these terrible Fenians. What will they do with Donogan if
they take him?'

'Transport him for life; they'll not hang him, I think.'

'That's worse than hanging. I mean--that is--Miss Kearney would rather
they'd hang him.'

'I have not said so,' replied Kate, 'and I don't suspect I think so,
either.'

'Well,' said Nina, after a pause, 'let us go back to breakfast. You'll see
Mr. Walpole--he's sure to be down by that time; and I'll tell him what you
wish is, that he must not think any more of the incident; that it was a
piece of official stupidity, done, of course, out of the best motives; and
that if he should cut a ridiculous figure at the end, he has only himself
to blame for the worse than ambiguity of his private papers.'

'I do not know that I 'd exactly say that,' said Kate, who felt some
difficulty in not laughing at the horror-struck expression of Mr. Curtis's
face.

'Well, then, I'll say--this was what I wished to tell you, but my cousin
Kate interposed and suggested that a little adroit flattery of you, and
some small coquetries that might make you believe you were charming, would
be the readiest mode to make you forget anything disagreeable, and she
would charge herself with the task.'

'Do so,' said Kate calmly; 'and let us now go back to breakfast.'

CHAPTER XLV

SOME IRISHRIES

That which the English irreverently call 'chaff' enters largely as an
element into Irish life; and when Walpole stigmatised the habit to Joe
Atlee as essentially that of the smaller island, he was not far wrong. I
will not say that it is a high order of wit--very elegant, or very refined;
but it is a strong incentive to good-humour--a vent to good spirits; and
being a weapon which every Irishman can wield in some fashion or other,
establishes that sort of joust which prevailed in the melee tournaments,
and where each tilted with whom he pleased.

Any one who has witnessed