-morrow
before it, I'm thinking, and take a train, and be in time to have a good
breakfast at Mrs. Tennant's.--Then if you, my dear lady, will put up
with me until lunch-time, I can see more of my Kathleen, and propound
some plans for your pleasure as well as hers. If you must go, Mrs.
Tennant, I am afraid you must, for the next train leaves Charing Cross
for Merrifield at ten minutes past nine."

Mrs. Tennant looked grave, but it was difficult to resist Miss O'Flynn,
and the time was passing. Accordingly she and Ruth left the Hotel
Metropole, and the aunt and niece found themselves alone.

CHAPTER XVII.

MISS KATIE O'FLYNN AND HER NIECE.

"Now, Kathleen," said Miss O'Flynn, "you come straight up to my bedroom,
where there is a cosy fire, and where we will be just as snug as Punch.
We'll draw two chairs up to the fire and have a real collogue, that we
will."

"Yes, that we will," said Kathleen. "I have a lot of things to ask you,
and a lot of things to tell you."

"Come along then, dear child. My room is on the second floor; we won't
wait for the lift."

Kathleen took Miss Katie O'Flynn's hand, and they ran merrily and as
lightly as two-year-olds up the stairs. People turned to look at them as
they sped upwards.

"Why, the little old lady seems as young and agile as the pretty niece,"
said one visitor to another.

"Oh, they're both Irish; that accounts for anything," was the answer.
"The most extraordinary and the most lively nation on the face of the
earth."

The two vivacious Irishwomen entered their bedroom. Aunt Katie flung
herself into a deep arm-chair; Kathleen did likewise, and then they
talked to their heart's content. It is good to hear two Irishwomen
conversing together, for there is so much action in the
conversation--such lifting of brows, such raising of hands, such
emphasis in tone, in voice, in manner. Imagery is so freely employed;
telling sentences, sharp satire, wit--brilliant, overflowing,
spontaneous--all come to the fore. Laughter sometimes checks the eager
flow of words. Occasionally, too, if the conversation is sorrowful,
tears flow and sobs come from the excited and over-sensitive hearts. No
one need be dull who has the privilege of listening to two Irishwomen
who have been parted for some time talking their hearts out to each
other. Kathleen and her aunt were no exception to the universal rule.
Kathleen had never been from home before, and Aunt Katie had things to
tell her