ys.'"

"It was Mr. Hemsworth he was after," said Wylie. "It was him he meant."

"To be sure it was; didn't I hear him asking after him."

"All right--so you did," added Wylie, nodding. "Take care you don't
forget the words, that's all, and here's the price of a glass to keep
your memory fresh."

And he chucked a sixpence to the man, who, as he caught it, gave a look
of shrewd intelligence, that showed he felt there was a compact between
them.

Mark moved homewards in deep thought. There was a time when
disappointment would have irritated him rather than have suggested
any new expedient for success. Now he was changed in this respect. If
baffled, he did not feel defeated. His first anger over, he began
to think how best he should obtain a meeting with Hemsworth, and a
retractation of his calumnies against himself. To venture back to Dublin
would have been unsafe on every account. The informations sworn against
him by Lanty Lawler might be at any moment used for his capture. In
Glenflesk alone was he safe; so long as he remained there, no force
Government would think of sending against him could avail; nor was it
likely, for the sake of so humble an individual as himself, that they
would take measures which would have the effect of disclosing their
knowledge of the plot, and thus warn other and more important persons
of the approaching danger. Mark's first determination to leave home
at once, was thus altered by these casual circumstances. He must await
Hemsworth's return, since, without the explanation he looked for, he
never could bring himself to take leave of his friends. As he pondered
thus, a servant in Hemsworth's livery rode rapidly past him. Mark looked
suddenly up, and perceived, with some surprise, from the train of dust
upon the road, that the man was coming from Carrig-na-curra. Slight as
the incident was, he turned his thoughts from his own fortunes to fix
them on those of his cousin Kate. By what magic this man Hemsworth
had won favour in her eyes he could not conceive. That he should have
overcome all the prejudices of his father was strange enough; but that
Kate, whose opinions of people seldom or ever underwent a change, and
who of all others professed to dislike that very plausibility of
manner which Hemsworth possessed, that she could forgive and forget the
tyrannies with which his name was associated--she whose spirit no sordid
bait could tempt, nor any mean object of personal ambition bias--this