an must
be--arranged for."

"Oh, certainly," said the Captain. "I must be--arranged for, and that so
soon as possible." The man spoke with a slightly foreign accent and in
a tone, as Fred thought, which savoured altogether of the galleys. "You
have done me the honour, I am informed, to make my daughter all your
own. These estimable people assure me that you hasten to make her your
wife on the instant. I consent. The O'Haras, who are of the very oldest
blood in Europe, have always connected themselves highly. Your uncle
is a most excellent nobleman whose hand I shall be proud to grasp." As
he thus spoke he stalked across the room to Fred, intending at once to
commence the work of grasping the Neville family.

"Get back," said Fred, retreating to the door.

"Is it that you fail to believe that I am your bride's father?"

"I know not whose father you may be. Get back."

"He is what he says he is," said the priest. "You should bear with him
for a while."

"Where is Kate?" demanded Fred. It seemed as though, for the moment,
he were full of courage. He looked round at Mrs. O'Hara, but nobody
answered him. She was still standing with her eyes fixed upon the
man, almost as though she thought that she could dart out upon him and
destroy him. "Where is Kate?" he asked again. "Is she well?"

"Well enough to hide herself from her old father," said the Captain,
brushing a tear from his eye with the back of his hand.

"You shall see her presently, Mr. Neville," said the priest.

Then Neville whispered a word into the priest's ear. "What is it that
the man wants?"

"You need not regard that," said Father Marty.

"Mr. Marty," said the Captain, "you concern yourself too closely in my
affairs. I prefer to open my thoughts and desires to my son-in-law. He
has taken measures which give him a right to interfere in the family.
Ha, ha, ha."

"If you talk like that I'll stab you to the heart," said Mrs. O'Hara,
jumping forward. Then Fred Neville perceived that the woman had a dagger
in her hand which she had hitherto concealed from him as she stood up
against the wall behind the head of the sofa. He learnt afterwards that
the priest, having heard in Liscannor of the man's arrival, had hurried
up to the cottage, reaching it almost at the same moment with the
Captain. Kate had luckily at the moment been in her room and had not
seen her father. She was still in her bed and was ill;--but during the
scene that occurred afterwards she