rney.

'Certainly, if I may call you Joe.'

'You may, if you like,' said he roughly, 'but my name is Dick.'

'I am Beppo, and very much at your orders,' said Atlee, stepping forward
and leading her away.

CHAPTER XIV

AT DINNER

They were assembled in the drawing-room before dinner, when Lord Kilgobbin
arrived, heated, dusty, and tired, after his twelve miles' drive. 'I say,
girls,' said he, putting his head inside the door, 'is it true that our
distinguished guest is not coming down to dinner, for, if so, I'll not wait
to dress?'

'No, papa; he said he'd stay with Mr. Walpole. They've been receiving and
despatching telegrams all day, and seem to have the whole world on their
hands,' said Kate.

'Well, sir, what did you do at the sessions?'

'Yes, my lord,' broke in Nina, eager to show her more mindful regard to his
rank than Atlee displayed; 'tell us your news?'

'I suspect we have got two of them, and are on the traces of the others.
They are Louth men, and were sent special here to give me a lesson, as they
call it. That's what our blessed newspapers have brought us to. Some idle
vagabond, at his wits' end for an article, fastens on some unlucky country
gentleman, neither much better nor worse than his neighbours, holds him
up to public reprobation, perfectly sure that within a week's time some
rascal who owes him a grudge--the fellow he has evicted for non-payment of
rent, the blackguard he prosecuted for perjury, or some other of the like
stamp--will write a piteous letter to the editor, relating his wrongs. The
next act of the drama is a notice on the hall door, with a coffin at the
top; and the piece closes with a charge of slugs in your body, as you are
on your road to mass. Now, if I had the making of the laws, the first
fellow I'd lay hands on would be the newspaper writer. Eh, Master Atlee, am
I right?'

'I go with you to the furthest extent, my lord.'

'I vote we hang Joe, then,' cried Dick. 'He is the only member of the
fraternity I have any acquaintance with.'

'What--do you tell me that you write for the papers?' asked my lord slyly.

'He's quizzing, sir; he knows right well I have no gifts of that sort.'

'Here's dinner, papa. Will you give Nina your arm? Mr. Atlee, you are to
take me.'

'You'll not agree with me, Nina, my dear,' said the old man, as he led her
along; 'but I'm heartily glad we have not that great swell who dined with
us yesterday.'

'I do agree with you, unc