d
more sublime in the desolation of winter, than even when clothed in the
purple and gold of summer. There was a fine sea, too, rolling into that
great Bay, bounding upon the rocks, and swelling proudly against the
tall cliffs, which, to my eye, is more pleasurable than the glassy
surface of calm water. Motion is the life of inanimate objects, and life
has always its own powers of excitement."

While they conversed thus, M'Nab, endeavouring, by adroit allusions
to the place, to divine the real reason of the visit, and Talbot, by
encomiums on the scenery, or, occasionally, by the expression of some
abstract proposition, seeking to avoid any direct interrogatory--Mark,
who had grown weary of a dialogue which, even in his clearer moments,
would not have interested him, drank deeply from the wine before him,
filling and re-filling a large glass unceasingly, while the O'Donoghue
merely paid that degree of attention which politeness demanded.

It was thus that, while Sir Archy believed he was pushing Talbot closely
on the objects of his coming, Talbot was, in reality, obtaining from him
much information about the country generally, the habits of the people,
and their modes of life, which he effected in the easy, unconstrained
manner of one perfectly calm and unconcerned. "The life of a fisherman,"
said he, in reply to a remark of Sir Archy's--"the life of a fisherman
is, however, a poor one; for though his gains are great, at certain
seasons, there are days--ay, whole months, he cannot venture out to sea.
Now it strikes me, that in that very Bay of Bantry the swell must be
terrific, when the wind blows from the west, or the nor'-west."

"You are right--quite right," answered M'Nab, who at once entered
freely into a discussion of the condition of the Bay, under the various
changing circumstances of wind and tide. "Many of our poor fellows
have been lost within my own memory, and, indeed, save when we have an
easterly wind----"

"An easterly wind?" re-echoed Mark, lifting his head suddenly from
between his hands, and staring in half-drunken astonishment around him.
"Is that the toast--did you say that?"

"With all my heart," said Sir Archy, smiling. "There are few sentiments
deserve a bumper better, by any who live in these parts. Won't you join
us, Mr. Talbot?"

"Of course I will," said Talbot, laughing, but with all his efforts to
seem at ease, a quick observer might have remarked the look of warning
he threw towards t