an be put into order, and a chance offers for his old age to
be made comfortable, who flings himself in the way of him and
competence?--You, of all others; the man in the world most obliged to
him. It's wicked, ungrateful, unnatural. From a lad of such spirit as
you are, I expect a truer courage.'

'I am not afraid of any man alive,' exclaimed I (for this latter part of
the Captain's argument had rather staggered me, and I wished, of course,
to turn it--as one always should when the enemy's too strong); 'and it's
_I_ am the injured man, Captain Fagan. No man was ever, since the world
began, treated so. Look here--look at this riband. I've worn it in
my heart for six months. I've had it there all the time of the fever.
Didn't Nora take it out of her own bosom and give it me? Didn't she kiss
me when she gave it me, and call me her darling Redmond?'

'She was PRACTISING,' replied Mr. Fagan, with a sneer. 'I know women,
sir. Give them time, and let nobody else come to the house, and they'll
fall in love with a chimney-sweep. There was a young lady in Fermoy'--

'A young lady in flames,' roared I (but I used a still hotter word).
'Mark this; come what will of it, I swear I'll fight the man who
pretends to the hand of Nora Brady. I'll follow him, if it's into the
church, and meet him there. I'll have his blood, or he shall have mine;
and this riband shall be found dyed in it. Yes, and if I kill him, I'll
pin it on his breast, and then she may go and take back her token.' This
I said because I was very much excited at the time, and because I had
not read novels and romantic plays for nothing.

'Well,' says Fagan after a pause, 'if it must be, it must. For a young
fellow, you are the most blood-thirsty I ever saw. Quin's a determined
fellow, too.'

'Will you take my message to him?' said I, quite eagerly.

'Hush!' said Fagan: 'your mother may be on the look-out. Here we are,
close to Barryville.'

'Mind! not a word to my mother,' I said; and went into the house
swelling with pride and exultation to think that I should have a chance
against the Englishman I hated so.

Tim, my servant, had come up from Barryville on my mother's return from
church; for the good lady was rather alarmed at my absence, and anxious
for my return. But he had seen me go in to dinner, at the invitation of
the sentimental lady's-maid; and when he had had his own share of the
good things in the kitchen, which was always better furnished than ours