t went far to dissipate
the cheerlessness of the scene.

Pixie discoursed with them in animated fashion the while the trunks were
being hoisted to their places.

"Has anyone been here from the Castle to-day, Dennis? They are all
quite well, I suppose?"

"They are so, Miss Pixie, and Miss Joan down upon us this morning,
hinting of what would happen if Jock was forgetting the fly. You mind
the night the lady was arriving, and having to find her way in the dark
while he was snoring in his bed? It's a fine flow of language Miss Joan
has of her own. It's as good as a sermon to listen to her when she's
roused, and Jock was getting the benefit of it this day!"

"There's a fine tale he's spinning!" exclaimed the defaulting Jock,
grinning in unabashed complacency. "Don't you be after believing a word
of it, Miss Pixie dear. It would be a cold bed that would keep Jock
Magee from driving ye home this night. And the size of ye too. You've
grown out of knowledge! It's a fine strapping lass you will be one of
these days." And Jock gazed with simulated amazement at the elf-like
figure as it stepped forward into the lamplight. "My Molly was biddin'
me give you her duty, and say her eyes are longing for the sight of you
again."

"I'll come to-morrow, as soon as I can get away. Give Molly my love,
Jock, and say I was often thinking of her. He is a decent fellow, Jock
Magee!" she explained to her companion, as the ramshackle vehicle
trundled away in the darkness. "A decent fellow, but he has been
terrible unlucky with his wives. They fall ill on him as soon as
they're married, and cost him pounds in doctors and funerals. This one
has asthma, and he expects she will die too before very long. He says
it doesn't give a man a chance; but he's the wonderful knack for keeping
up his spirits!"

He had indeed. Mademoiselle found it difficult to think of the jovial,
round-faced Jehu as the victim of domestic afflictions, and for the
hundredth time she reflected that this Ireland to which she had come was
a most extraordinary place. Nothing could be seen from the windows of
the fly save an occasional tree against the sky, but ever up and up they
climbed, while the wind blew round them in furious blasts. Then
suddenly came a bend in the road, and a vision of twinkling windows, row
upon row, stretching from one wing to the other of a fine old building,
and each window glowing with its own cheery welcome.

"It's illumined!