rendered
impossible, by the interruption of the elder brother; and, in the latter
part, somehow, I believe, I--I actually begin to fear, I forgot it
altogether. However, I have thought of one thing; and it should be
done without a moment's loss of time. You must write to Carden, the law
agent, and stop any proceedings Hemsworth may have begun against these
people. It would be most disgraceful to think that, while professing
sentiments of good feeling and friendliness, we were using the arm of
the law to harass and distress them."

"I'll do it at once, Fred--by this night's post. In truth, I never
understood the point at issue between us; nor can I clearly see
Hemsworth's reason for the summary course he has taken with them. There
must be more in it than I know of."

"The castle stands proudly, as seen from this point," said Sybella, who
felt somewhat wearied of a conversation maintained in a voice too low
for her to hear; and the remark had the effect of recalling them _to_
other thoughts, in discussing which, they arrived at the old keep of
Carrig-na-curra.

Whether recent events had sharpened Kerry O'Leary to a more acute
sense of his duties as butler, or that Kate O'Donoghue had exerted some
influence in bringing about so desirable an object, we know not; but at
the very first summons of the hall-door bell, he made his appearance,
his ordinary costume being augmented, if not improved, by a pair of
very un-weldy top-boots of his master's, which reached somewhere to the
middle of the thigh, and were there met by a green velvet waistcoat,
from the same wardrobe, equally too large and voluminous for its present
owner.

Visitors at the O'Donoghue house were generally of a character which
Kerry felt necessary to close the door against. They unhappily came, not
with the ceremonial of a visiting card, but with some formidable missive
of the law, in the shape of a distress warrant--a latitat--or that
meeker and less-dreaded engine, a protested bill. It was, then, with a
considerable relief to his anxieties, that his eye caught the flutter
of a lady's dress, as he peeped from the small casement beside the
door, and his heart expanded in a little thanksgiving of its own, as he
unbarred the portal to admit her.

Having informed his visitors that the family were at home, he preceded
them to the drawing-room, with a step, the noise of which happily
drowned the tittering it was impossible to subdue, at beholding him. To
pre