l wear
it for my benefit; and if I could only secure the appearance of yourself
and your little groom, my triumph would be, indeed, complete." I did not
dare to wait for more, but hurried out to affect to busy myself with the
saddle, and pretend that it was not tightly girthed.'

'I'd have given twenty pounds, if I had it, to have seen the old woman's
face. No one ever ventured before to pay her back with her own money.'

'But I give you such a wrong version of it, Dick. I only convey the
coarseness of the rejoinder, and I can give you no idea of the ineffable
grace and delicacy which made her words sound like a humble apology. Her
eyelids drooped as she curtsied, and when she looked up again, in a way
that seemed humility itself, to have reproved her would have appeared
downright cruelty.'

'She is a finished coquette,' said he bitterly; 'a finished coquette.'

Kate made no answer, though he evidently expected one; and after waiting a
while, he went on: 'Not but her high accomplishments are clean thrown away
in such a place as this, and amongst such people. What chance of fitting
exercise have they with my father or myself? Or is it on Joe Atlee she
would try the range of her artillery?'

'Not so very impossible this, after all,' muttered Kate quietly.

'What, and is it to _that_ her high ambitions tend? Is _he_ the prize she
would strive to win?'

'I can be no guide to you in this matter, Dick. She makes no confidences
with me, and of myself I see nothing.'

'You have, however, some influence over her.'

'No; not much.'

'I did not say much; but enough to induce her to yield to a strong
entreaty, as when, for instance, you implored her to spare your
brother--that poor fellow about to fall so hopelessly in love--'

'I'm not sure that my request did not come too late after all,' said she,
with a laughing malice in her eye.

'Don't be too sure of that,' retorted he, almost fiercely.

'Oh, I never bargained for what you might do in a moment of passion or
resentment.'

'There is neither one nor the other here. I am perfectly cool, calm, and
collected, and I tell you this, that whoever your pretty Greek friend is to
make a fool of, it shall not be Dick Kearney.'

'It might be very nice fooling, all the same, Dick.'

'I know--that is, I believe I know--what you mean. You have listened to
some of those high heroics she ascends to in showing what the exaltation
of a great passion can make of any man who has