an entrance into the
widow's castle, and, if possible, see your sister, and humbug the
ould woman into a belief that she has laid herself open to criminal
indictment. We might even go so far as to have notices served on them;
but, if they snap their fingers at us, we can do nothing further. My
advice in that case would be, that you should make the best terms in
your power with Martin Kelly."

"And let the whole thing go! I'd sooner--Why, Daly, I believe you're as
bad as Blake! You're afraid of these huxtering thieves!"

"If you go on in that way, Mr Lynch, you'll get no professional
gentleman to act with you. I give you my best advice; it you don't like
it, you needn't follow it; but you won't get a solicitor in Connaught
to do better for you than what I'm proposing."

"Confusion!" muttered Barry, and he struck the hot turf in the grate a
desperate blow with the tongs which he had in his hands, and sent the
sparks and bits of fire flying about the hearth.

"The truth is, you see, your sister's in her full senses; there's the
divil a doubt of that; the money's her own, and she can marry whom she
pleases. All that we can do is to try and make the Kellys think they
have got into a scrape."

"But this letter--What on earth am I to say to her?"

"I'll just put down what I would say, were I you; and if you like you
can copy it." Daly then wrote the following letter--

My Dear Anty,

Before taking other steps, which could not fail of being very
disagreeable to you and to others, I wish to point out to you how
injudiciously you are acting in leaving your own house; and to try
to induce you to do that which will be most beneficial to yourself,
and most conducive to your happiness and respectability. If you
will return to Dunmore House, I most solemnly promise to leave you
unmolested. I much regret that my violence on Thursday should have
annoyed you, but I can assure you it was attributable merely to my
anxiety on your account. Nothing, however, shall induce me to repeat
it. But you must be aware that a little inn is not a fit place for
you to be stopping at; and I am obliged to tell you that I have
conclusive evidence of a conspiracy having been formed, by the
family with whom you are staying, to get possession of your money;
and that this conspiracy was entered into very shortly after the
contents of my father's will had been made public. I _must_ have
this fact p