t's where you are wrong, for he's
waiting for her at this very minute. He came ringing at the door five
minutes ago, the young Englishman that's with the Trelawneys, and that
father was after offering a mount to the other day. `Is Mr
O'Shaughnessy at home?' says he. `He is, sir,' says Molly, knowing no
better, for she never had a sight of the Major after dinner. `Can I see
him for a moment? I'll not come farther than the hall, for the cart's
waiting, and I am not fit to enter a room.' So with that he comes in,
six foot two, if he's an inch, and covered from head to foot in a shiny
white mackintosh, with his head peeping out on top, and I've seen uglier
men than him before this. I was coming down the stairs after shedding
me sheets, and Molly was asking me where the Major might be, so I told
her to send Dennis in search, and I was all smiles and apologies for the
darkness of the place, with only the one lamp and the fire dying out on
the hearth. `I'll fetch more light,' says I, and, `Pray do nothing of
the kind. It's charming to see this fine old place lit up by the
moonlight; I could study it for an hour on end. A perfect setting for a
ghost story, isn't it?' says he, smiling, and with that he crosses over
to the window, and by the same token it was a regular ghost he looked
himself, all tall, and straight, and shiny white. Then it walked into
my head what a jest it would be to send Esmeralda to meet him, and the
two of them each thinking the other was a ghost, and frightened out of
their seven senses. So I excused myself, polite like, saying I would
speak to my sister, and the rest of the tale you know for yourselves. I
taunted her with cowardice to make her rise to the occasion, but that
wouldn't work, and time was passing, so I turned to bribery, but by good
fortune I'll keep my racket yet. At this very moment she will be
feeling her way cautiously down that stair, and he'll be hearing the
creak, and coming forward to see the cause. All bluey white they'll be,
and each one so scared by the sight of the other that they'll hardly
dare to breathe. Listen now while I open the door, and you may hear her
squeal."

"Patrick O'Shaughnessy, ye graceless boy, how dare you take such a
liberty with your sister! A strange man,--an Englishman,--and Esmeralda
knowing nothing about him, and believing there is no one near! Let me
pass now! Stand aside this moment! Patrick O'Shaughnessy, will you let
me pass, or wi