aside. The pain of her recent farewell still
burned in her eyes and throat.

He saw and interpreted the action.

"Don't take it to heart, my dear!" he said quickly. "You shall return
whenever you like. And--and it will be my proud privilege to know that
you will always find everything in readiness for you."

Clodagh's head drooped.

"You are very good," she said in a low, mechanical voice.

For a space Milbanke made no response; then suddenly his fingers
tightened nervously over the hand he was still holding.

"Clodagh," he said anxiously, "you do not regret anything? You know it
is not too late--even now."

Clodagh glanced up, and for one instant a sudden light leapt into her
eyes; the next, her lashes had drooped again.

"No," she said, "I regret nothing."

Milbanke's fingers tightened spasmodically.

"God bless you!" he said tremulously. And leaning forward suddenly, he
pressed his thin lips to her forehead.

The hours that followed breakfast and saw the departure from Orristown
were too filled with haste and confusion to make any deep impression
upon Clodagh's mind. The last frenzied packing of things that had been
overlooked, the innumerable farewells, all more or less harassing, the
scramble to be dressed, and the entering of the musty old barouche,
that had done duty upon great occasions in the Asshlin family for close
upon half a century, were all hopelessly--and mercifully--confused.
Even the drive to Carrigmore with her aunt and sister filled her with a
sense of dazed unreality. She sat very straight and stiff in the new
grey dress, one hand clasped tenaciously round Nance's warm fingers,
the other holding the cold and unfamiliar ivory prayer-book that had
been one of Milbanke's gifts. It was only when at last the carriage
drew up before the little church, and she passed to the open gateway
between two knots of gaping and whispering villagers, that she realised
with any vividness the inevitable nature of the moment. As she walked
up the narrow path to the church door, she turned suddenly to her
little sister.

"Nance----" she said breathlessly.

But the time for speech was passed. As Nance raised a questioning,
excited face to hers, Mrs. Asshlin hurried after them across the grass;
and together the three entered the church. A moment later Clodagh saw
with a faint sense of perturbation that the building was not empty. In
a shadowy corner close to the altar rails Milbanke was talking in
nervous