eet, and turning a waggish look at our beaten rivals, burst
out into a fit of triumphant laughter.

Mike was correct as to time; in some few seconds less than forty minutes we
turned into the avenue of Gurt-na-Morra. Tearing along like the very moment
of their starting, the hot and fiery animals galloped up the approach, and
at length came to a stop in a deep ploughed field, into which, fortunately
for us, Mr. Blake, animated less by the picturesque than the profitable,
had converted his green lawn. This check, however, was less owing to my
agency than to that of my servants; for dismounting in haste, they flew to
the horses' heads, and with ready tact, and before I had helped my cousin
to the ground, succeeded in unharnessing them from the carriage, and led
them, blown and panting, covered with foam, and splashed with mud, into the
space before the door.

By this time we were joined by the whole Blake family, who poured forth in
astonishment at our strange and sudden appearance. Explanation on my part
was unnecessary, for Baby, with a volubility quite her own, gave the whole
recital in less than three minutes. From the moment of her advent to her
departure, they had it all; and while she mingled her ridicule at my
surprise, her praise of my luncheon, her jests at my prudence, the whole
family joined heartily in her mirth, while they welcomed, with most
unequivocal warmth, my first visit to Gurt-na-Morra.

I confess it was with no slight gratification I remarked that Baby's visit
was as much a matter of surprise to them as to me. Believing her to have
gone to visit at Portumna Castle, they felt no uneasiness at her absence;
so that, in her descent upon me, she was really only guided by her own
wilful fancy, and that total absence of all consciousness of wrong which
makes a truly innocent girl the hardiest of all God's creatures. I was
reassured by this feeling, and satisfied that, whatever the intentions of
the elder members of the Blake family, Baby was, at least, no participator
in their plots or sharer in their intrigues.

CHAPTER XLVI.

NEW VIEWS.

When I found myself the next morning at home, I could not help ruminating
over the strange adventures of the preceding day, and felt a kind of
self-reproach at the frigid manner in which I had hitherto treated all the
Blake advances, contrasting so ill for me with the unaffected warmth and
kind good-nature of their reception. Never alluding, even by accident,