ight have to throw a shadow across his
sunshine.

"Who's your letter from, Tony?" said she, dryly.

"From Skeffy; he 'll be here to-morrow; he's to arrive at Coleraine by
six in the morning, and wants me to meet him there."

"And what's the other sealed note in your hand?"

"This?--this is from another man,--a fellow you've never heard of; at
least, you don't know him."

"And what may be his name, Tony?" asked she, in a still colder tone.

"He's a stranger to you, mother. Skeffy found the note at my hotel, and
forwarded it,--that's all."

"You were n't wont to have secrets from me, Tony," said she,
tremulously.

"Nor have I, mother; except it may be some trifling annoyance or worry
that I don't care to tease you about. If I had anything heavier on my
mind, you may trust me, I 'd very soon be out with it."

"But I 'm not to hear who this man is?" said she, with a strange
pertinacity.

"Of course you are, if you want to hear; his name is there, on the
corner of his note,--Robt M'Gruder,--and here's the inside of it, though
I don't think you 'll be much the wiser when you 've read it."

"It's for yourself to read your own letter, Tony," said she, waving back
the note. "I merely asked who was your correspondent."

Tony broke the seal, and ran his eye hastily over the lines. "I 'm as
glad as if I got a hundred pounds!" cried he. "Listen to this, mother:--

"'Dear Sir,--When I received your note on Monday--'

"But wait a bit, mother; I must tell you the whole story, or you 'll not
know why he wrote this to me. Do you remember my telling you, just at
the back of a letter, that I was carried off to a dinner at Richmond?"

"Yes, perfectly."

"Well, I wish I hadn't gone, that's all. Not that it was n't jolly, and
the fellows very pleasant and full of fun, but somehow we all of us
took too much wine, or we talked too much, or perhaps both; but we began
laying wagers about every imaginable thing, and I made a bet,--I 'll
be hanged if I could tell what it was; but it was something about Dolly
Stewart. I believe it was that she was handsomer than another girl. I
forgot all about her hair being cut off, and her changed looks. At all
events, off we set in a body, to M'Gruder's house. It was then about two
in the morning, and we all singing, or what we thought was singing, most
uproariously. Yes, you may shake your head. I 'm ashamed of it now, too,
but it was some strange wine--I think it was called Marcobrunner--tha