ladies. He promised,
however, to follow out the Earl's wishes, and begged that Dermot might
come to him directly they left the country; "And I shall be ready to
undertake his education at once, Lady Sophy," he said.

"No, no!" was the answer; "we cannot give him up yet; it is quite a
pleasure teaching him. He already reads English with tolerable fluency,
though we have not attempted yet to teach him to write. We must leave
that to you."

Dermot, with a grief he had not expected to feel, saw the party take
their departure from the castle. The young ladies kindly nodded to him
as their carriage rolled past the spot where he stood.

"There's a bright light gone from amongst us," he said to himself. "Did
I ever before dream that such creatures existed on earth."

He returned to his home in a mood totally strange to him. His mother,
however, had reason to congratulate herself on the Earl's visit, for it
enabled her, from the payment she received for her fish, to provide in a
way she had never before done for the coming winter. This made her the
more willingly consent that Dermot should go over every day to obtain
instruction from Mr Jamieson, the good clergyman, who was so pleased
with the fisher-boy, that he took particular pains in instructing him,
and not only was Dermot in a short time able to read any book that was
put into his hands, but he also learned to write with considerable ease.
His mind naturally expanded with the books given him to study, and as
he obtained information, he became greedy for more.

Although Mr Jamieson had at first only intended teaching him the simple
rudiments of reading and writing, he became so interested in the
progress made by his pupil, that he felt desirous of imparting all the
knowledge Dermot was capable of acquiring.

Thus the winter passed away. Dermot, in spite of wind and rain, or
sleet or cold, persevered in his visits to the vicarage. He gained also
an acquaintance with religious truth, of which before he had been
profoundly ignorant. It was not very perfect, perhaps, but Mr Jamieson
put the Bible into his hands, and he thus obtained a knowledge of its
contents possessed by few of those around. Had the neighbouring parish
priest, Father O'Rourke, discovered whither he was going, and the change
that was constantly taking place in him, he would probably have
endeavoured to interfere, and prevent him from paying his visits to the
Protestant clergyman. Although he