m home to make a demand for arms at your house,
and your sister, it seems, showed fight and beat them off. They talk of two
fellows being seen badly wounded, but, of course, that part of the story
cannot be relied on. That they got enough to make them beat a retreat is,
however, certain; and as they were what is called a strong party, the feat
of resisting them is no small glory for a young lady.'

'It was just what Kate was certain to do. There's no man with a braver
heart.'

I wonder how the beautiful Greek behaved? I should like greatly to hear
what part she took in the defence of the citadel. Was she fainting or in
hysterics, or so overcome by terror as to be unconscious?'

'I'll make you any wager you like, Kate did the whole thing herself. There
was a Whiteboy attack to force the stairs when she was a child, and I
suppose we rehearsed that combat fully fifty--ay, five hundred times. Kate
always took the defence, and though we were sometimes four to one, she kept
us back.'

'By Jove! I think I should be afraid of such a young lady.'

'So you would. She has more pluck in her heart than half that blessed
province you come from. That's the blood of the old stock you are often
pleased to sneer at, and of which the present will be a lesson to teach you
better.'

'May not the lovely Greek be descended from some ancient stock too? Who is
to say what blood of Pericles she had not in her veins? I tell you I'll not
give up the notion that she was a sharer in this glory.'

'If you've got the papers with the account, let me see them, Joe. I've half
a mind to run down by the night-mail--that is, if I can. Have you got any
tin, Atlee?'

'There were some shillings in one of my pockets last night. How much do you
want?'

'Eighteen-and-six first class, and a few shillings for a cab.'

'I can manage that; but I'll go and fetch you the papers, there's time
enough to talk of the journey.'

The newsman had just deposited the _Croppy_ on the table as Joe returned
to the breakfast-table, and the story of Kilgobbin headed the first column
in large capitals. 'While our contemporaries,' it began, 'are recounting
with more than their wonted eloquence the injuries inflicted on three poor
labouring men, who, in their ignorance of the locality, had the temerity to
ask for alms at Kilgobbin Castle yesterday evening, and were ignominiously
driven away from the door by a young lady, whose benevolence was
administered through a blunder