aid Fagan, rudely.

"I cannot believe you serious in putting it," said MacNaghten, half
proudly. "Neither you nor any other man has the right to make such a
proposal to me."

"I say that I have, sir. I repeat it. I am her father, and by one dash
of my pen she is penniless to-morrow. Ay, by Heaven, it is what I will
do if you drive me to it."

"At last I catch your meaning," said MacNaghten, "and I see where your
suspicions have been pointing at. No, no; keep your money. It might be a
capital bargain for me, Tony, if I had the conscience to close with it;
and if you knew but all, you 've no right to offer so much temptation.
That path will bring you to the Castle. You 'll find Miss Polly in the
library. Good-bye, Fagan."

And without waiting for a reply, MacNaghten turned abruptly away, and
disappeared in the wood.

Fagan stood for a second or two deep in thought, and then bent his steps
towards the Castle.

CHAPTER V. JOE RAPER

The little incident which forms the subject of the last chapter occurred
some weeks before my father's return to Ireland, and while as yet the
fact of his marriage was still a secret to all, save his most intimate
friends. The morning after Fagan's visit, however, MacNaghten received a
few lines from my father, desiring him to look after and "pass" through
the Custom House certain packages of value which would arrive there
about that time. It chanced that poor Dan's circumstances just at
this moment made seclusion the safer policy, and so he forwarded the
commission to Fagan.

The packages contained the wardrobe of Madame de Carew, and revealed
the mystery of my father's marriage. Fagan's plans and speculations must
have attained to a great maturity in his own mind, to account for the
sudden shock which this intelligence gave him. He was habitually a
cautious calculator, rarely or never carried away by hope beyond the
bounds of stern reality, and only accepting the "probable" as the
"possible." In this instance, however, he must have suffered himself a
wider latitude of expectation, for the news almost stunned him. Vague as
were the chances of obtaining my father for a son-in-law, they were yet
fair subjects of speculation; and he felt like one who secures a great
number of tickets in a lottery, to augment his likelihood to win.
Despite of all this, he had now to bear the disappointment of a "blank."
The great alliance on which he had built all his hopes of position and
station