d the
windows, and a branch of a tree tapped against the shutters--that was
all.

"While your grandfather lives you will not be homeless," she said: "and
who knows but that Theobald may be able to clear off the mortgages?"

My grandfather slept peacefully, as though he needed sleep; and now we
talked and now we were silent, and the night wore on.

We could not move for fear of disturbing him. Dido came and lay on the
rug beside me, and slept with her chin resting on my foot. I think my
grandmother dozed a little and the fire went low for I was afraid to
stir to replenish it. The old dog moaned and whimpered in her sleep, and
my grandmother came out of her doze to say that she had been dreaming of
Luke; and nodded off again.

I heard Neil Doherty bolt and bar the hall door on his way to bed and I
knew then that it must be eleven. There were many things to think of.
To-morrow the preparations for the wedding must all be put a stop to.
The presents must be returned. There was so much to be done, so many
things to be cancelled. I wondered when and how Garret Dawson's blow
would fall. He was one to seek an opportunity of doing it publicly. That
it would fall I had no doubt. There was no relenting behind that face of
granite.

Well, for to-night the old souls might sleep. To-morrow there would be
Mary Champion to stand by them. I did not yet dare to think of the joy
that was coming to me from over the world. It would be another blow to
them that I loved Anthony Cardew.

Also through my thoughts there came the face of Richard Dawson, and I
wondered if he was somewhere out in the night. I did not feel that the
house to which he was to have brought me a bride could contain him that
night. What was he doing? Where had he gone for consolation? My pity for
him and my remorse were great.

A coal fell out of the fire with a sudden noise, and the displaced coals
fell in, sending up a big shower of sparks. The storm was at its height.
It seemed to shake the solid house. And suddenly my grandmother awoke.

"Bawn, Bawn," she said, "I dreamt that your grandfather was dead and it
was terrible."

At the moment my grandfather opened his eyes.

"I am very tired," he said--"very, very tired and old. If Luke is coming
he ought to be here soon. Why is he not here to protect us?"

There came a sound above the crying of the wind. My grandmother had
been leaning tenderly over her husband who seemed to have sunk back into
his sleep; no