; she had her
dear land; above all, she had her dreams. Perhaps when these were
realised--and the time seemed very near now--and a new Ireland was
created, to her too a brighter world would open.

She had forgotten Bale's presence, and was only recalled to every-day
life by the sound of voices. Four men were approaching the house. Uncle
Ulick, Colonel John, and the French skipper were three of these; at the
sight of the fourth Flavia's face fell. Luke Asgill of Batterstown was
the nearest Justice, and of necessity he was a Protestant. But it was
not this fact, nor the certainty that Augustin was pouring his wrongs
into his ears, that affected Flavia. Asgill was distasteful to her,
because her brother affected him. For why should her brother have
relations with a Protestant? Why should he, a man of the oldest blood,
stoop to intimacy with the son of a "middleman," the son of one of
those who, taking a long lease of a great estate and under-letting at
rack rents, made at this period huge fortunes? Finally, if he must have
relations with him, why did he not keep him at a distance from his
home--and his sister?

It was too late, or she would have slipped away. Not that Asgill--he
was a stout, dark, civil-spoken man of thirty-three or four--wore a
threatening face. On the contrary, he listened to the Frenchman's
complaint with a droll air; and if he had not known of the matter
before, his smile betrayed him. He greeted Flavia with an excess of
politeness which she could have spared; and while Uncle Ulick and
Colonel John looked perturbed and ill at ease, he jested on the matter.

"The whole cargo?" he said, with one eye on the Frenchman and one on
his companions. "You're not for stating that, sir?"

"All the tubs," Augustin answered in a passion of earnestness. "What
you call, every tub! Every tub!"

"The saints be between us and harm!" Asgill responded. "Are you hearing
this, Miss Flavia? It's no less than felony that you're accused of, and
I'm thinking, by rights, I must arrest you and carry you to
Batterstown."

"I do not understand," she answered stiffly. "And The McMurrough is not
at home."

"Gone out of the way, eh?" Asgill replied with a deprecatory grin. "And
the whole cargo was it, Captain?"

"All the tubs, perfectly!"

"You'd paid your dues, of course?"

"Dues, _mon Dieu_! But they take the goods!"

"Had you paid your dues?"

"Not already, because----"

"That's unfortunate," Asgill answered in a t