name of the Evil One is it?" he cried, in a temper. "Can't a man eat
his meat in peace, but all the world must be tramping the floor?"

"Oh, whisht! whisht!" Darby muttered, in a peculiar tone.

James leapt up. He was too angry to take a hint. "You old fool!" he
cried, heedless of Asgill's hand, which was plucking at his skirts.
"What is it? What do you mean with your 'whishts' and your nods?
What----"

But the old butler had turned his back on his master, and gone out in a
panic. Fortunately at this moment Flavia showed at the door. "The
fault's mine, James," she said, in a clear, loud tone. And the Colonel
saw that her colour was high and her eyes were dancing. "I couldn't
bear to leave her at once, the darling! That was it; and besides, I
took a fear----"

"The pastern's right enough," Uncle Ulick struck in, entering behind
her and closing the door with the air of a big man who does not mean to
be trifled with. "Sound as your own light foot, my jewel, and sounder
than James's head! Be easy, be easy, lad," he continued, with a trifle
of sternness. "Sure, you're spoiling other men's meat, and forgetting
the Colonel's present, not to speak of Mr. Asgill, that, being a
Justice, is not used to our Kerry tantrums!"

Possibly this last was a hint, cunningly veiled. At any rate, The
McMurrough took his seat again with a better grace than usual, and
Asgill made haste to take up the talk. The Colonel reflected; nor did
he find it the least odd thing that Flavia, who had been so full of
distress at the loss of her mare, said little of the rescuer's
adventures, nor much of the mare herself. Yet the girl's eyes sparkled,
and her whole aspect was changed in the last hour. She seemed, as far
as he could judge, to be in a state of the utmost excitement; she had
shaken off the timidity which her brother's temper too often imposed on
her, and with it her reticence and her shyness before strangers. All
the Irish humour in her fluttered to the surface, and her tongue ran
with an incredible gaiety. Uncle Ulick, the O'Beirnes, the buckeens,
laughed frank admiration--sometimes at remarks which the Colonel could
not understand, sometimes at more obvious witticisms. Asgill was her
slave. Darby, with the familiarity of the old servant, chuckled openly
and rubbed his hands at her sallies; the footboys guffawed in corners,
and more than one dish rolled on the floor without drawing down a
rebuke. Even her brother regarded her with unwillin