he keyhole; "I
think it's as well for ye to stay quiet this evenin' an' not be takin'
any more walks, or tirin' or excitin' yourself. Pleasant dreams,
dear."

Down the stairs he went, chuckling to himself and leaving the girl
furious. She banged at the door with all her might and main, but the
lock held fast and no one came to her rescue; then she rushed to the
window and threw it open; but the distance from the ground was too
great for even a desperate maiden to jump, and she wrung her hands
frantically. Mike would think she had given him up; he would fancy her
grandfather had got round her, and that she had deserted him in his
humiliation and distress. Was there nobody who would help her, no one
by whom she could convey at least a message?

As if in answer to her agonised prayer, certain shuffling steps were
presently heard below, and old Judy's white sunbonnet appeared round
the corner of the house. Roseen clapped her hands: here was one who
would do her bidding, a faithful hench-woman who could be trusted to
carry out her orders in defiance of old Peter's commands.

"Judy!" cried the girl softly, bending out of the window.

Judy looked up in astonishment. "Is it there ye are?" she cried.

"Oh, Judy, my grandfather has me locked in! Listen now! I want ye to
do something for me."

Judy's face clouded over. "I was just stalin' out to have me little
pipe," she said. "The masther does be killin' me, when he catches me
at it, an' I was makin' me way off while he had his back turned."

"Ah, ye can smoke away as much as ye like," cried Roseen impatiently.
"See here, Judy, all I want ye to do is to stand over there, by the
corner of the haggard, an' watch till Mike comes, an' tell him me
grandfather's afther lockin' me up, an' I can't get out this evenin',
but the first chanst I have to-morrow I'll run round. An' tell
him"--here her voice faltered--"that no matther what any one says,
I'll always be faithful to him. An' I'll never get married to anybody
on'y to himself."

Judy's beady black eyes were fixed somewhat vacantly on her mistress's
face during this speech, but she nodded at the end, and on being
adjured not to forget, informed Roseen, somewhat tartly, that she had
no notion of forgettin'. She hobbled off fingering her beloved pipe,
and Roseen, sitting by the window, watched the twilight deepen and saw
the world grow misty and indistinct, and heard the birds twittering as
they went to roost. Then the stars