f."

"My doctor's craft has taught me to know that symptoms are never without
a meaning. But enough of him. The question is simply this: we have,
then, merely to propose to Cashel the purchase of your interest in the
cottage, on which you will cede the possession."

"Yes; and give up, besides, all claim at law; for you know we are
supported by the highest opinions."

"Pooh! nonsense, man; don't embarrass the case by a pretension they
're sure to sneer at. The cottage and the little fields behind it are
tangible and palpable; don't weaken your case by a plea you could not
press."

"Have your own way, then," said the old man, mildly.

"It is an annuity, you say, you 'd wish?"

"On Mary's life, not on mine, doctor."

"It will be a poor thing," said Tiernay, with a sigh.

"They say we could live in some of the towns in Flanders very cheaply,"
said Corrigan, cheerfully.

"You don't know how to live cheaply," rejoined Tiernay, crankily. "You
think, if you don't see a man in black behind your chair, and that you
eat off delf instead of silver, that you are a miracle of simplicity. I
saw you last Sunday put by the decanter with half a glass of sherry at
the bottom of it, and you were as proud of your thrift as if you had
reformed your whole household."

"Everything is not learned in a moment, Tiernay," said Corrigan, mildly.

"You are too old to begin, Con Corrigan," said the other, gravely. "Such
men as you, who have not been educated to narrow fortunes, never learn
thrift; they can endure great privations well enough, but it is the
little, petty, dropping ones that break down the spirit,--these they
cannot meet."

"A good conscience and a strong will can do a great deal, Tiernay. One
thing is certain,--that we shall escape persecution from _him_. _He_
will scarcely discover us in our humble retreat."

"I've thought of that too," said Tiernay; "it is the greatest advantage
the plan possesses. Now, the next point is, how to see this same Cashel;
from all that I can learn, his life is one of dissipation from morning
till night. Those fashionable sharpers by whom he is surrounded are
making him pay dearly for his admission into the honorable guild."

"The greater the pity," sighed Corrigan; "he appeared to me deserving of
a different fate. An easy, complying temper--"

"The devil a worse fault I 'd with my enemy," broke in Tiernay,
passionately. "A field without a fence,--a house without a door to it!
And there