der the chestnuts and raced alongside of us.

It was Martin, and though his right arm was in a sling, he leapt up to
the step and held on to the open window by his left hand while he pushed
his head into the carriage and made signs to me to take out of his mouth
a big red apple which he held in his teeth by the stalk. I took it, and
then he dropped to the ground, without uttering a word, and I could
laugh now to think of the gruesome expression of his face with its
lagging lower lip and bloodshot eyes. I had no temptation to do so then,
however, and least of all when I looked back and saw his little
one-armed figure in the big mushroom hat, standing on the top of the
high wall of the bridge, with William Rufus beside him.

We reached Blackwater in good tithe for the boat, and when the funnels
had ceased trumpeting and we were well away, I saw that we were sitting
in one of two private cabins on the upper deck; and then Father Dan told
me that the other was occupied by the young Lord Raa, and his guardian,
and that they were going up together for the first time to Oxford.

I am sure this did not interest me in the least at that moment, so false
is it that fate forewarns us when momentous events are about to occur.
And now that I had time to think, a dreadful truth was beginning to dawn
on me, so that when Father Dan, who was much excited, went off to pay
his respects to the great people, I crudled up in the corner of the
cabin that was nearest to the door and told myself that after all I had
been turned out of my father's house, and would never see my mother and
Martin any more.

I was sitting so, with my hands in my big muff and my face to the stern,
making the tiniest occasional sniff as the mountains of my home faded
away in the sunlight, which was now tipping the hilltops with a feathery
crest, when my cabin was darkened by somebody who stood in the doorway.

It was a tail boy, almost a man, and I knew in a moment who he was. He
was the young Lord Raa. And at first I thought how handsome and well
dressed he was as he looked down at me and smiled. After a moment he
stepped into the cabin and sat in front of me and said:

"So you are little Mary O'Neill, are you?"

I did not speak. I was thinking he was not so very handsome after all,
having two big front teeth like Betsy Beauty.

"The girl who ought to have been a boy and put my nose out, eh?"

Still I did not speak. I was thinking his voice was like Nessy
Ma