-'Well, let's give him back as much of it as we have left!' But
I stopped in time. You were not in the mood last night to take the
most loving favour in the world. You wanted to sacrifice yourself;
so instead of saying what was in my heart, I locked it up closely
and thought about it all night; and before you were awake this
morning, I sent for Pierce and asked him to lend me three hundred
pounds--the three hundred we had spent out of the thousand.

"Don't say anything, darling! Don't be angry! Don't even think!
Pierce was perfectly sweet; he never asked one question, and at
three o'clock to-day, just after we came back from lunch, I sent
the thousand pounds in notes to Carlton House Terrace, with a card
of yours enclosed.

"Darling, _don't_ be vexed! Don't question it! It is right, I know.
It was a debt of honour, in the fullest sense.

"And now, Clo, it's all finished, all done with, all passed, and
you can repay me the money slowly in years and years. Be happy! Oh,
darling, be happy! Go back to Orristown, as I would have you to go
back, with your heart full of all the great, good, true love that
Walter and I have for you.

"Ride and walk and swim, and be without one care; and in a week or
two, when the hateful thought of last night has been swept away by
the splendid strong sea winds, come back to us, a newer, wiser,
happier Clodagh.

"Darling, I am, now and always,

"Your true sister,

"NANCE."

Clodagh closed the letter; then suddenly she rose from her seat and
stepped from the carriage into the narrow corridor.

The engine was swinging forward at great speed; the train itself was
swaying to the swift motion; outside, the pleasant English country
seemed to fly past the long line of windows. For a second, she stood by
the carriage door; then she stepped forward to the open window and,
leaning out, let the strong current of air play upon her face, blowing
back the hair from her temples.

How good God was! How good the world was! The great machinery of the
train--the great wheels of life--ground out the same sudden song. She
was free! By the unlimited power of love, she had been made free!

CHAPTER XVII

It was eleven o'clock on the day following when Clodagh's train steamed
into the little station of Muskeere. Her boat had arrived in Cork in
the early hours of the morning; but she had only given