oice, as he opened
the drawing-room door.

He intended it as a warning, but it was apparently not necessary.
Terry was sitting in a chair at one side of the fireplace with Shot's
head on his knee. Miss Creagh, a cloud on her face, was in the
opposite chair, caressing Cleopatra. Sir Shawn's heart sank. Had they
been quarrelling, silly children? He began to tremble for his dream.

"Cleopatra scratched Shot's nose," said Terry, holding up the
liver-coloured nose for inspection. "See, it has bled. Eileen will
have it that it was Shot's fault. Of course it was not. Shot is so
gentle."

He stood up to meet the ladies and, swift as an arrow from the bow, he
went to Stella's side.

Poor Sir Shawn! Poor gentleman! The fabric of his rosy dreams had
faded to ashes. He looked almost piteously towards Eileen: and,
unreasonably, was angry with her because with that sullenness of
expression her beauty had departed: she was almost plain. Under his
breath he damned Cleopatra.

CHAPTER XII

MOTHER-LOVE

Somehow or other Lady O'Gara found it difficult to get Stella to
herself in the days that followed. There were times when she almost
thought that Stella deliberately kept away. Sir Shawn had often said,
rallying his wife, that Mary never saw further than her own nose. She
was a little bewildered about the young people. Terry and Eileen
seemed to have quarrelled. Eileen found occupations that kept her in
her own room. She had suddenly developed a desire to make herself a
coat and skirt, and Lady O'Gara had gone in many times, to find her
pinning and fitting on the lay-figure which occupied the centre of the
room, surrounded by all manner of snippets and pieces.

This ridiculous pre-occupation of Eileen's gave Lady O'Gara something
she did not complain of. She had more of her son than otherwise she
would have had. Terry had never looked for better companionship than
his mother's, but he grumbled about Eileen nevertheless.

"She used to be always ready to come anywhere," he said. "I know I
can't always have you, because Father needs you so much. We have
always torn you in pieces between the two of us. I asked Eileen to
come out shooting on the bog with me and she wouldn't. She just opened
her door and I saw a horrid thing, an indecent thing that pretended to
look like a woman's body, taking up the middle of her room."

"It's for fitting dresses on, you ridiculous boy!" Lady O'Gara said
laughing.