son. From that moment the earth became as a rose-colored
flame. She almost ignored the adulation of Cherry Hill, and the
astonished reverence of her friends over her success. Her success was
told in awesome whispers in the church as she walked to the third pew of
the middle aisle. A series of legends grew about it, over which the
experienced gossips disputed in vain; her own description of the dinner
was carried to the four quarters of the world by Sister Magdalen, Miss
Conyngham, Senator Dillon, and Judy; the skeptical and envious pretended
to doubt even the paragraph in the journals. At last they were struck
dumb with the rest when it was announced that on Saturday last Mrs.
Montgomery Dillon, Miss Mona Everard, and Mr. Louis Everard had sailed
on the City of London for a tour of Europe, the first month of which
would be spent at Castle Moyna, Ireland, as guests of the Dowager
Countess of Skibbereen!

CHAPTER XIV.

ABOARD THE "ARROW."

One month later sailed another ship. In the depth of night the _Arrow_
slipped her anchor, and stole away from the suspicious eyes of harbor
officials into the Atlantic; a stout vessel, sailed with discretion, her
trick being to avoid no encounters on the high seas and to seek none.
Love and hope steered her course. Her bowsprit pointed, like the lance
of a knight, at the power of England. Her north star was the freedom of
a nation. War had nothing to do with her, however, though her mission
was warlike: to prove that one hundred similar vessels might sail from
various parts to the Irish coast, and land an army and its supplies
without serious interference from the enemy. The crew was a select body
of men, whose souls ever sought the danger of hopeless missions, as
others seek a holiday. In spite of fine weather and bracing seas, the
cloud of a lonely fate hung over the ship. Arthur alone was
enthusiastic. Ledwith, feverish over slight success, because it roused
the dormant appetite for complete success, and Honora, fed upon
disappointment, feared that this expedition would prove ashen bread as
usual; but the improvement in her father's health kept her cheerful.
Doyle Grahame, always in high spirits, devoted his leisure to writing
the book which was to bring him fame and much money. He described its
motive and aim to his companions.

"It calls a halt," he said "on the senseless haste of Christians to take
up such pagans as Matthew Arnold, and raises a warning cry against
s