r to-morrow,"--then he knew that the question must be touched.
"I am sorry,--very sorry, that you must go," said the Earl.

"You see a man can't leave the service at a moment's notice."

"I think that we could have got over that, Fred."

"Perhaps as regards the service we might, but the regiment would think
ill of me. You see, so many things depend on a man's staying or going.
The youngsters mayn't have their money ready. I said I should remain
till October."

"I don't at all wish to act the tyrant to you."

"I know that, uncle."

Then there was a pause. "I haven't spoken to you yet, Fred, on a matter
which has caused me a great deal of uneasiness. When you first came I
was not strong enough to allude to it, and I left it to your aunt."
Neville knew well what was coming now, and was aware that he was moved
in a manner that hardly became his manhood. "Your aunt tells me that you
have got into some trouble with a young lady in the west of Ireland."

"No trouble, uncle, I hope."

"Who is she?"

Then there was another pause, but he gave a direct answer to the
question. "She is a Miss O'Hara."

"A Roman Catholic?"

"Yes."

"A girl of whose family you know nothing?"

"I know that she lives with her mother."

"In absolute obscurity,--and poverty?"

"They are not rich," said Fred.

"Do not suppose that I regard poverty as a fault. It is not necessary
that you should marry a girl with any fortune."

"I suppose not, Uncle Scroope."

"But I understand that this young lady is quite beneath yourself in
life. She lives with her mother in a little cottage, without
servants,--"

"There is a servant."

"You know what I mean, Fred. She does not live as ladies live. She is
uneducated."

"You are wrong there, my lord. She has been at an excellent school in
France."

"In France! Who was her father, and what?"

"I do not know what her father was;--a Captain O'Hara, I believe."

"And you would marry such a girl as that;--a Roman Catholic; picked up
on the Irish coast,--one of whom nobody knows even her parentage or
perhaps her real name? It would kill me, Fred."

"I have not said that I mean to marry her."

"But what do you mean? Would you ruin her;--seduce her by false promises
and then leave her? Do you tell me that in cold blood you look forward
to such a deed as that?"

"Certainly not."

"I hope not, my boy; I hope not that. Do not tell me that a heartless
scoundrel is to take my name when I am gone.