ide, one of the labouring
peasants recognised her--saw she was ill--and offered to get her a
country car. Oh, what an agonising struggle she made to answer the
man cheerfully, when she assured him that she was quite well--that
she was only sitting there for her pleasure--that she required no
assistance, and that she should walk home directly. The man well knew
that she was not there for her pleasure--that her brother was in
gaol, her father on the point of losing his property, and that she
was weak and in need of rest; but he saw that she would sooner be
alone, and he had the good tact to leave her, without pressing his
offer for her accommodation.

At length she reached the avenue, and had to pass the spot where she
had sat so long on that fatal night listening for the sound of her
lover's horse, and watching her brother as he stood swinging his
stick before the house. She shuddered as she did so, but she did walk
by the tree where she had then sat shivering, and at last once more
stood on the steps of her father's house.

The door was fastened inside, and she had to knock for admittance.
This she did three times, till she thought she should have fainted on
the flags, and at last the window of her own sitting-room was raised,
and Mary McGovery's head was slowly protruded. Feemy was sitting on
the low stone wall, which guarded the side of the flags, as she heard
Mary say in a sharp voice--

"Who's that?--and what are ye wanting here? Oh! by the mortials, but
av it aint Miss Feemy herself come back I declare!"

And Mary ran round, and began to draw the bolts of the front door. Up
jumped Larry at the unwelcome sound, from his accustomed seat by the
fire.

"What in the divil's name are ye afther? What are ye doing? Ye
owld hag, will ye be letting the ruffians in on me?" And he caught
violently hold of Mary's gown to drag her back, before she had
accomplished the liberation of the rusty bolts.

"Now go in, sir, and sit down," said Mary. "Go in, sir, will you; I
tell you it's yer own daughter, and no ruffian whatever. Dra---- the
owld man, but he'll have every rag off the back of me! Don't I tell
you, it's Miss Feemy. Will you be asy now?--do you want to have me
stark naked?"

"Come away, woman, I tell you; don't I know Feemy's gone off,
away from me; she'll niver, niver come back; it's Keegan and his
hell-hounds you're letting in on me."

By this time Mary had accomplished her object of undoing the door in
spite