"Certainly, Captain Davenant; I have no preparations to make. All our
furniture--which, thanks to Walter, was saved--has been stowed away in
the cellars of a warehouse here, and is safe unless William returns and
batters the whole town to pieces. The silver and other valuables our
friends here will take care of, till better times, so we have only to
pack two valises and mount. The servants will all find situations here.
My daughter's maid, Bridget, and two or three others have offered to
accompany us to England, but we have decided to take no one. Directly we
get to Bristol, I shall write to my husband, who has given me an address
both in London and Dublin, so that he will doubtless join us in a very
short time."

The party started the next morning, and reached Cork without adventure,
as there were no English troops in that part of the country. Three days
after their arrival, Mrs. Conyers took a passage for herself and Claire
in a trader about to sail for Bristol. The evening before they sailed,
Mrs. Conyers had a long talk with Captain Davenant, while the two young
people had slipped off for a last walk together.

"Of course, Captain Davenant," she began, "you have seen, as well as I
have, how things stand between Claire and Walter. They are both very
young, but the strange circumstances of the times, and the manner in
which they have been thrown together, have combined to render their
position peculiar, and I believe, nay, I am sure, that on both sides
their affection is deep and will be lasting."

"I quite agree with you, Mrs. Conyers, at any rate as far as my son is
concerned. Walter has never spoken to me on the subject. I suppose
fathers and sons are less given to confidences of this sort than mothers
and daughters. But that Walter is deeply and earnestly attached to your
daughter is unquestionable, and, indeed, it would be singular were it
otherwise. I have stood passive in the matter, simply because I saw that
you took no steps to keep them apart; and you could not but have seen, at
an early period of their acquaintance, in what direction matters were
tending."

"Frankly," Mrs. Conyers said, "I gave the matter no thought, during your
first stay with us. I had regarded Claire as a child, and it did not, at
first, occur to me that there could be any danger of her falling
seriously in love, for years to come. When my eyes were opened to the
true state of things, and I found my little girl had lost her heart,