d, creeping up among the
rocks, had seen his boat as it came round the point from Liscannor. She
had first thought that she would climb down the path to meet him; but
the tide was high and there was now no strip of strand below the cliffs;
and Barney Morony would have been there to see; and she resolved that it
would be nicer to wait for him on the summit. "Oh Fred, you have come
back," she said, throwing herself on his breast.

"Yes; I am back. Did you think I was going to desert you?"

"No; no. I knew you would not desert me. Oh, my darling!"

"Dear Kate;--dearest Kate."

"You have thought of me sometimes?"

"I have thought of you always,--every hour." And so he swore to her that
she was as much to him as he could possibly be to her. She hung on his
arm as she went down to the cottage, and believed herself to be the
happiest and most fortunate girl in Ireland. As yet no touch of the
sorrows of love had fallen upon her.

He could not all at once ask her as to that rumour which Morony had
mentioned to him. But he thought of it as he walked with his arm round
her waist. Some question must be asked, but it might, perhaps, be better
that he should ask it of the mother. Mrs. O'Hara was at the cottage and
seemed almost as glad to see him as Kate had been. "It is very pleasant
to have you back again," she said. "Kate has been counting first the
hours, and then the minutes."

"And so have you, mother."

"Of course we want to hear all the news," said Mrs. O'Hara. Then
Neville, with the girl who was to be his wife sitting close beside him
on the sofa,--almost within his embrace,--told them how things were
going at Scroope. His uncle was very weak,--evidently failing; but still
so much better as to justify the heir in coming away. He might perhaps
live for another twelve months, but the doctors thought it hardly
possible that he should last longer than that. Then the nephew went
on to say that his uncle was the best and most generous man in the
world,--and the finest gentleman and the truest Christian. He told also
of the tenants who were not to be harassed, and the servants who were
not to be dismissed, and the horses that were to be allowed to die in
their beds, and the trees that were not to be cut down.

"I wish I knew him," said Kate. "I wish I could have seen him once."

"That can never be," said Fred, sadly.

"No;--of course not."

Then Mrs. O'Hara asked a question. "Has he ever heard of us?"

"Yes;--he has