, and sat on a mossy ledge of rock, over which the brow of
a little precipice jutted in such a manner as to render those who sat
beneath, visible only from a particular point. Here he had scarcely
seated himself when the tread of a foot was heard, and in a few minutes
Nanse M'Collum stood beside him.

"Why, thin, bad cess to you, Lamh Laudher," she exclaimed, "but it's a
purty chase I had afther you."

"Afther me, Nanse? and what's the commission, _cush gastha_
(lightfoot)?"

"The sorra any thing, at all, at all, only to see if you war here. Miss
Ellen sent me to tell you that she's afeard she can't come this evenin',
unknownst to them."

"An' am I not to wait, Nanse?"

"Why, she says she--_will_ come, for all that, if she can; but she
bid me take your stick from you, for a rason she has, that she'll tell
yourself when she sees you."

"Take my stick! Why Nanse, _ma colleen baun_, what can she want with my
stick? Is the darlin' girl goin' to bate any body?"

"Bad cess to the know _I_ know, Lamh Laudher, barrin' it be to lay on
yourself for stalin' her heart from her. Why thin, the month's mether o'
honey to you, soon an' sudden, how did you come round her at all?"

"No matter about that, Nanse; but the family's bitther against me?--eh?"

"Oh, thin, in trogs, it's ill their common to hate you as they do; but
thin, you see, this faction-work will keep yees asundher for ever. Now
gi' me your stick, an' wait, any way, till you see whether she comes or
not."

"Is it by Ellen's ordhers you take it, Nanse?"

"To be sure--who else's? but the divil a one o' me knows what she means
by it, any how--only that I daren't go back widout it."

"Take it, Nanse; she knows I wouldn't refuse her my heart's blood, let
alone a bit of a kippeen."

"A bit of a kippeen! Faix, this is a quare kippeen! Why, it would fell a
bullock."

"When you see her, Nanse, tell her to make haste, an' for God's sake not
to disappoint me. I can't rest well the day I don't meet her."

"Maybe other people's as bad, for that matter; so good night, an' the
mether o' honey to you, soon an' sudden! Faix, if any body stand in my
way now, they'll feel the weight of this, any how."

After uttering the last words, she brandished the cudgel and
disappeared.

Lamh Laudher felt considerably puzzled to know what object Ellen could
have had in sending the servant maid for his staff. Of one thing,
however, he was certain, that her motive must have had regar