ar child, that's just what I have been asking myself. But come
in!--come into the house!"

Mrs. Asshlin was fluttered by the responsibilities of the moment.

"Why wasn't he in church?" Clodagh asked, as she followed her into the
narrow hall.

Mrs. Asshlin threw out her hands in a gesture of perplexity.

"How can I tell?" she said. "Boys are incomprehensible things. I'm
sure--er--James is not old enough to have forgotten that?"

She glanced archly over her shoulder.

Milbanke looked intensely embarrassed, and Clodagh coloured.

"Well, we'd better not wait for Larry," she interposed hastily. "You
know what a time it takes to get round to Muskeere with that big
barouche."

Mrs. Asshlin became all assiduity.

"Certainly!--certainly, my dear child! Mr. Curry and his brother are
already waiting. Won't you come in?"

With hospitable excitement she marshalled them into the dining-room.

The room into which they were ushered, though small, was bright and
cheerful; and, notwithstanding the season, there were flowers upon the
table and mantelpiece. But even under these favourable conditions, the
lunch was scarcely a success. Mrs. Asshlin was genuine enough in her
efforts at entertainment; but the guests were not in a condition to be
entertained. Milbanke was intensely nervous; Clodagh sat straight and
rigid in her chair, uncomfortably conscious of insubordinate emotions
that crowded up at every added suggestion of departure. Even the
rector's brother--a bluff and hearty personage, who, out of old
friendship for the Asshlin family, had consented to act as best man at
the hurriedly arranged wedding--felt his spirits damped; while little
Nance, who sat close to her sister, made no pretence whatever at hiding
the tears that kept welling into her eyes.

It was with universal relief that at length they rose from the table
and filed out into the hall. There, however, a new interruption awaited
them. In the shadow of a doorway they caught sight of Hannah, arrayed
in her Sunday bonnet and shawl, and still breathless from the walk from
Orristown.

At sight of the little party she came forward with a certain ungainly
shyness; but catching a glimpse of Clodagh, love conquered every lesser
feeling.

"Let me have wan last look at her!" she exclaimed softly. "That's all
I'm wantin'."

And as Clodagh turned impulsively towards her, she held out her arms.

"Sure, I knew her before any wan of ye ever sat eyes on her!" she
expla