Joe, with a look that made his
counterpart tremble all over. "That bosthoon there, would make you
believe he was in the coach, convarsing the whole way with him. Sure
wasn't I riding the wheeler, and never heerd a word of it. Whisht, I
tell ye, and don't provoke me."

"Ay, stop your mouth with some of this," interposed Mary, as she helped
the smoking and savoury mess around the table.

Jim looked down abashed and ashamed; his testimony was discredited; and
without knowing why or wherefore, he yet had an indistinct glimmering
that any effort to vindicate his character would be ill-received; he
therefore said nothing more: his silence was contagious, and the meal
which a few moments before promised so pleasantly, passed off with gloom
and restraint.

All Mary M'Kelly's blandishments, assisted by a smoking cup of mulled
claret--a beverage which not a Chateau on the Rhone could rival in racy
flavour--failed to recall the young man's good-humour: he sat in gloomy
silence, only broken at intervals by sounds of some low muttering
to himself. Mary at length having arranged the little room for his
reception, bade him good night, and retired to rest. The postillions
sought their dens over the stable, and the youth, apparently lost in his
own thoughts, sat alone by the embers of the turf fire, and at last sunk
to sleep where he was, by the chimney-corner.

CHAPTER III. THE "COTTAGE AND THE CASTLE."

Of Sir Marmaduke Travers, there is little to tell the reader beyond
what the few hints thrown out already may have conveyed to him. He was
a London banker, whose wealth was reputed to be enormous. Originally
a younger son, he succeeded somewhat late in life to the baronetcy and
large estates of his family. The habits, however, of an active city
life--the pursuits which a long career had made a second nature to
him--rendered him both unfit to eater upon the less exciting duties of
a country gentleman's existence, and made him regard such as devoid of
interest or amusement. He continued therefore to reside in London for
many years after he became the baronet; and it was only at the death
of his wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, that these habits became
distasteful; he found that he could no longer continue a course which
companionship and mutual feeling had rendered agreeable, and he resolved
at once to remove to some one of his estates, where a new sphere of
occupation might alleviate the sorrows of his loss. To this no obs