ttempt, when the widow's step was heard on the stairs.
Martin retreated from his position on the sofa, and Meg from hers
outside the door, and Mrs Kelly entered the room, with Barry's letter
in her hand, Meg following, to ascertain the cause of the unfortunate
interruption.

XVIII. AN ATTORNEY'S OFFICE IN CONNAUGHT

"Anty, here's a letter for ye," began the widow. "Terry's brought it
down from the house, and says it's from Misther Barry. I b'lieve he was
in the right not to bring it hisself."

"A letther for me, Mrs Kelly? what can he be writing about? I don't
just know whether I ought to open it or no;" and Anty trembled, as she
turned the epistle over and over again in her hands.

"What for would you not open it? The letther can't hurt you, girl,
whatever the writher might do."

Thus encouraged, Anty broke the seal, and made herself acquainted with
the contents of the letter which Daly had dictated; but she then found
that her difficulties had only just commenced. Was she to send an
answer, and if so, what answer? And if she sent none, what notice ought
she to take of it? The matter was one evidently too weighty to be
settled by her own judgment, so she handed the letter to be read, first
by the widow, and then by Martin, and lastly by the two girls, who, by
this time, were both in the room.

"Well, the dethermined impudence of that blackguard!" exclaimed Mrs
Kelly. "Conspiracy!--av' that don't bang Banagher! What does the man
mean by 'conspiracy,' eh, Martin?"

"Faith, you must ask himself that, mother; and then it's ten to one he
can't tell you."

"I suppose," said Meg, "he wants to say that we're all schaming to rob
Anty of her money--only he daren't, for the life of him, spake it out
straight forrard."

"Or, maybe," suggested Jane, "he wants to bring something agen us like
this affair of O'Connell's--only he'll find, down here, that he an't
got Dublin soft goods to deal wid."

Then followed a consultation, as to the proper steps to be taken in the
matter.

The widow advised that father Geoghegan should be sent for to indite
such a reply as a Christian ill-used woman should send to so base a
letter. Meg, who was very hot on the subject, and who had read of some
such proceeding in a novel, was for putting up in a blank envelope the
letter itself, and returning it to Barry by the hands of Jack, the
ostler; at the same time, she declared that "No surrender" should be
her motto. Jane was of opin