ing to his feet, replied in a whisper, audible but to Mark--

"True, it was a very hazardous guess; but when, in England, we meet
with a fustian jacket and a broken beaver, in company with a gun and a
game-bag, we have little risk in pronouncing the owner a game-keeper or
a poacher."

Mark struck his gun against the ground with such violence as shivered
the stock from the barrel, while he grasped the corner of the
chimney-piece convulsively with the other hand. It seemed as if passion
had actually paralysed him: as he stood thus, the door opened, and Kate
O'Donoghue entered. She was dressed in the becoming half-toilette of
the morning, and wore on her head one of those caps of blue velvet,
embroidered in silver, which are so popular among the peasantry of
Rhenish Germany. The light airiness of her step as she came forward,
unconscious of a stranger's presence, displayed her figure in its most
graceful character. Suddenly her eyes fell upon Frederick Travers,
she stopped and courtesied low to him, while he, thunderstruck with
amazement at recognizing his fellow traveller so unexpectedly, could
scarcely return her salute with becoming courtesy.

"Mr. Travers," said Herbert, after waiting in vain for Mark to speak;
"Mr. Travers has been kind enough to come and enquire after me. Miss
O'Donoghue, sir;" and the boy, with much bashfulness, essayed in some
sort the ceremony of introduction.

"My cousin, Mr. Mark O'Donoghue," said Kate, with a graceful movement
of her hand towards Mark, whose attitude led her to suppose he was not
known to Travers.

"I have had the honour of presenting myself already," said Frederick,
bowing; but Mark responded not to the inclination, but stood still with
bent brow and clenched lip, seemingly unconscious of all around him,
while Kate seated herself, and motioned to Travers to resume his place.
She felt how necessary it was she should atone, by her manner, for the
strange rudeness of her cousin's; and her mind being now relieved of the
fear which first struck her, that Frederick's visit might be intended
for herself, she launched freely and pleasantly into conversation,
recurring to the incidents of the late journey, and the
fellow-travellers they had met with.

If Kate was not sorry to learn that "the Lodge" was tenanted by persons
of such condition and class, as might make them agreeable neighbours,
Travers, on the other hand, was overjoyed at discovering one of such
attractions within a