poor lad, only thought for the moment of how he might best secure a home
for his fair bride not too much out of harmony with her present
surroundings.

"And are you pretty sure of the infirmary?" asked the Colonel with an
appearance of warm interest.

"Well, I'm not rightly sure," was the answer. "I have a good deal of
promises and everybody knows me, and the other man, Cloran, is no doctor
at all--only took to it lately. Sure his shop in Cloon isn't for
medicine at all, but for carrot-seed and turnip-seed and every
description of article. But there's bribery begun already; and
yesterday, Mr. Stratton asked one of the Guardians to keep his vote for
me, and says he, 'how can I when I have the other man's money in my
pocket?'"

"And where did you learn doctoring?" asked the Colonel.

"Well, I walked St. James' Hospital in Dublin three years; and before
that I was in the Queen's College, Galway, where I went after leaving
the National School in Killymer."

"Were you well taught there?" inquired his host.

"I was indeed. I learned a great deal of geography and arithmetic.
There's no history taught at all though, nor grammar. But you'll wonder
how good the master was at mathematics, and he nothing to look at at
all. His name was Shee," went on the Doctor, now quite over his shyness;
"and he was terrible fond of roast potatoes. I remember he used to put
them in the grate to roast and take them out with two sticks, for in
those days there were no tongs; and one day I brought four round stones
in my pocket and put them in the grate as if they were potatoes to roast
for myself. By-and-by, he went over and took the stick and raked out one
of them, and took it up in his hand and rubbed it on his trousers (so)
to clean it, and not a tint of skin was left on his hand. And I out of
the door and he after me, and I never dared go to the school again till
my grandfather went before me to make peace."

The Colonel laughed heartily and was proceeding further to draw out his
ingenuous guest, but Louise, visibly impatient, rose to leave the room.
She was chafing with shame and mortification. Had she ever thought of
becoming the wife of that man with his awkward manners and Connaught
brogue? Certainly she had never realised what it meant. She could never
look her brother in the face again if the idea of the engagement should
dawn on him. How could she escape it? Carry it out she could not. All
her enthusiastic wish to spend her life