y, in the newspaper sense of the term.--It is possible, too, our
dear Kate may deem your ambition a poor one----"

"Kate, did you say?--Kate, uncle," said she, raising her head, with a
look of abstraction.

"Yes, my dear, I was speaking o' some of the dangers that beset the
first steps in political opinion, and telling Herbert that peril does
not always bring honour."

"True, sir--true: but Mark----" She stopped, and the blush that covered
her face suffused her neck and shoulders. It was not till her lips
pronounced the name, that she detected how inadvertently she had
revealed the secret of her own musings.

"Mark, my sweet Kate is, I trust, in no need of my warnings; he lives
apart from the struggle, and were it otherwise, he is older, and more
able to form his opinions than Herbert, here."

These words were spoken calmly, and with a studious desire to avoid
increasing Kate's confusion.

"What about Mark?" cried the O'Donoghue, suddenly aroused by the mention
of the name. "It's very strange he should not be here to say 'good-bye'
to Kate. Did any one tell him of the time fixed for your departure?"

"I told him of it, and he has promised to be here," said Herbert; "he
was going to Beerhaven for a day or two, for the shooting; but, droll
enough, he has left his gun behind him."

"The boy's not himself at all, latterly," muttered the old man. "Lanty
brought up two horses here the other day, and he would not even go to
the door to look at them. I don't know what he's thinking of."

Kate never spoke, and tried with a great effort to maintain a look of
calm unconcern; when, with that strange instinct so indescribable and so
inexplicable, she felt Sir Archy's eyes fixed upon her, her cheek became
deadly pale.

"There, there he comes, and at a slapping pace, too!" cried Herbert;
and, as he spoke, the clattering sound of a fast gallop was heard
ascending the causeway, and the next moment the bell sent forth a loud
summons.

"I knew he'd keep his word," said the boy, proudly, as he walked to meet
him. The door opened, and Frederick Travers appeared.

So unexpected was the disappointment, it needed all Sir Archy's
practised politeness to conceal from the young Guardsman the
discomfiture of the rest: nor did he entirely succeed, for Frederick
was no common observer, and failed not to detect in every countenance
around, that his was not the coming looked for.

"I owe a thousand apologies for the hour of my visit, n