ame."

"Devil a doubt of it!" said Asgill, whose subtle brain had been at
work. "Not that it matters, bedad, for an Irish gentleman will do his
best. And to-morrow Colonel Sullivan, that's more knowledge of the mode
and foreign ways, will be back, and he'll be helping his cousin. More
by token," he added, in a different tone, "you know him of old?"

Payton, who had frowned at the name, reddened at the question. "Is
that," he asked, "the Colonel Sullivan who----"

"Who tried the foils with Lemoine at Tralee?" Asgill cried heartily.
"The same and no other! He is away to-day, but he'll be returning
tomorrow, and he'll be delighted to see you! And by good luck, there
are foils in the house, and he'll pass the time pleasantly with you!
It's he's the hospitable creature!"

Payton was far from pleased. He was anything but anxious to see the man
whose skill had turned the joke against him; and his face betokened his
feelings. Had he foreseen the meeting he would certainly have remained
in Tralee, and left the job to a subaltern. "Hang it!" he exclaimed,
vexed by the recollection, "a fine mess you led me into there, Asgill!"

"I did not know him then," Asgill replied lightly. "And, pho! Take my
word for it, he's no man to bear malice!"

"Malice, begad!" Payton answered, ill-humouredly; "I think it's I----"

"Ah, you are right again, to be sure!" Asgill agreed, laughing
silently. For already he had formed a hope that the guest might be
manoeuvred out of the house on the morrow. Not that he thought Payton
was likely either to discover the Colonel's plight, or to interfere if
he did. But Asgill had another, and a stronger motive for wishing the
intruder away. He knew Payton. He knew the man's arrogance and
insolence, the contempt in which he held the Irish, his view of them as
an inferior race. And he was sure that, if he saw Flavia and fancied
her--and who that saw her would not fancy her?--he was capable of any
rudeness, any outrage; or, if he learned her position in regard to the
estate, he might prove a formidable, if an honourable, competitor. In
either case, to hasten the man's departure, and to induce Flavia to
remain in the background in the meantime, became Asgill's chief aim.

James McMurrough, on the other hand, saw in the unwelcome intruder an
English officer; and, troubled by his guilty conscience, he dreaded
above all things what he might discover. True, the past was past, the
plot spent, the Spanish ship gone