her eyes a look of wonderful tenderness. He realised without a word from
her that she loved him, too.

"Una--I ought never--I was wrong. But I love you more than my life.
Una, you are too far above me. You are a great man's daughter. How did I
dare?"

She came close to him and spoke.

"There is no above or below, Neal, when we love each other. How can I be
far above the man who loves me?"

"But there is no hope for us, none at all anywhere. Even to-morrow I may
have to go--Una, I may have to fight----"

"Whatever comes, Neal, I know that you will be brave and good. Be brave
and good, dear Neal, and then God will give us our hearts' desire. I am
not afraid of the future. Why should you be afraid? If you do what is
right and honourable what is there to fear? God is good."

They walked together to the house. Then Neal turned and went home. The
future, so far as he could see into it, was dark enough. His love seemed
utterly hopeless, yet his heart was full of unspeakable joy. He knew,
beyond all possibility of doubt, that Una loved him and would love him
whatever happened. Her strangely simple faith seemed to make all things
plain before him. Una loved him and God was good. It was enough.

CHAPTER V

When Neal arrived at the Manse he found that the sentries who had stood
on guard at the door were gone. The yeomen had disappeared from before
the meeting-house. The broken door, the fragments of the wrecked pulpit,
and the figure of the dead trooper swinging from the branch on which he
had been hanged were left as witnesses of the Government's methods of
keeping the peace in Ireland.

Inside the house Micah Ward paced restlessly up and down the floor of
his study. Donald, his pipe in his mouth, sat on a chair tilted back
till its front legs were six inches off the floor, and watched his
brother. His attitude was precarious, but he seemed comfortable. Micah
paused in his rapid walking as Neal entered the room.

"What have you been doing, Neal?" he said. "Your face is cut, your
clothes are torn; you look strangely excited."

"I have been fighting," said Neal. He did not think it necessary to add
that he had also been love-making, though it was the interview with Una,
far more than the struggle with the yeoman, which was accountable for
the gleaming eyes and exalted expression which his father noticed.

"I trust you were victorious," said his father, "that your foot has been
dipped in the blood of your enemi