--to scan over prints or inspect maps,--anything, in
short, which should pass the time and shorten the interval of waiting,
doubly awkward from being the first moment he had been alone with Cashel
since his arrival. Cashel was silent and absorbed, and, more intent upon
following out the train of his own thoughts, never noticed the various
arts by which Kennyfeck affected to interest himself. The solicitor,
too, bent from time to time a stealthy look on the young man, on whose
features he had rarely seen the same traces of deep reflection.

At last, with a half start, as if suddenly awaking, Cashel sat up in his
chair, and said,--

"Have I explained to you what Dr. Tiernay's business is here this
morning? It is to make a proposition from Mr. Corrigan for the sale
of his interest in Tubber-beg. He wishes to leave the country and go
abroad."

"His interest, sir," replied Kennyfeck, calmly, "although more valuable
to you than to any one else, must be a matter of small amount; for years
back, he has done little more than vegetate on the property, without
capital or skill to improve it."

"I 'm not asking you to appraise it, just yet," said Roland, snappishly;
"I was simply informing you of the object of the gentleman's visit. It
is the advantage of this purchase that I wished you to consider, not its
cost."

"The cost will define the advantage, sir," rejoined Kennyfeck,
"particularly as the demand may be high, and the payment inconvenient."

"How do you mean, inconvenient?"

Kennyfeck hesitated. There was something in the hurried abruptness of
the question, as well as in the excited expression of the questioner's
face, that confused him; so that Cashel had time to repeat the words
before he could reply.

"Is it that I am straitened for money?" said he, passionately.

"Not quite--that--sir," replied Kennyfeck, stopping between every word.
"You have resources--very great resources--untouched, and you have
considerable sums in foreign securities, intact--"

"Never mind these," broke in Roland, hurriedly. "How do we stand with
those London fellows?"

Kennyfeck shook his head gravely, but without speaking.

"I pray you, sir," said Roland, in a voice of hardly suppressed passion,
"keep pantomime for another moment, or a keener interpreter of it, and
condescend, in plain English, to answer me my last question."

"There is no difficulty with Bigger and Swain, sir," said Kennyfeck,
as his cheek grew slightly red. "The