e," she said. "I wouldn't be
bothered going to Dublin unless I was to dine at the Castle."

"I dare say Bawn will find plenty of other entertainment, sister, even
though she does not visit at the Castle," Miss Henrietta put in; she was
always the conciliatory one. "There will be plenty of people in Dublin,"
she went on, "who will be very glad to see Bawn--old friends of Lady St.
Leger and of Mary Champion."

"Did I say it was quite empty?" Miss Bride asked, with some asperity.
"To be sure, there are always people. But she'll miss the best of it.
She ought to be there for the Patrick's Ball and the command nights at
the theatre. The last time I was at the Theatre Royal I was in the
Viceregal box. She was a sweet, pretty creature, and His Excellency had
a beautifully turned leg. We drove to Punchestown with them the
following day. I remember the hundreds and hundreds of jaunting-cars
tearing like mad along the road. To be sure we had outriders, but it was
nearly as much as your life was worth, and coming out at the Gap
afterwards we had a horse's hind legs in our carriage, and every one
screaming like mad, and the dust fit to choke you. Even motors couldn't
rival that."

She spoke with an air of grave exhilaration. They knew everybody and
everything that was fine and gay in the social life of their day.
Perhaps they would know about my fine gentleman. I only hesitated to ask
because in her latter years Miss Bride had adopted a manner of hostility
towards the male sex generally, and was apt to snap at any one who
showed an interest in it even of the slightest. However, I screwed up my
courage.

"Miss Chenevix," I began, "I met a gentleman the other day in our wood
and I wondered who he might be. I can't imagine where he was staying.
And I thought I would ask you if you knew who he was."

"We could do very well without men," Miss Bride said sharply. "In fact,
the world could have got on very well without them. There is nothing a
man can do that a woman can not do better. What was your gentleman like,
Bawn?"

Despite her hostility to the male sex Miss Bride was very curious.

"He was very slim and elegant," I began--"not very young."

"Now what do you mean by not very young, Bawn? Be precise in your
statements," Miss Bride said, with some asperity.

"I should say he was quite forty," I said, blushing, and wishing I had
not mentioned the matter of age.

"Fiddlesticks, child! Forty is young. And so you met this you