sshlin laughed a little.

"We didn't think you'd care much about it, after Italy and places," he
said, with a slight touch of shy awkwardness that seemed more than ever
to link the present with the past.

"Not care about it? Larry!" Her voice quivered; then she laughed
quickly and touched the horse with the whip.

"Shall we go straight to Orristown? or shall I run in and see Aunt
Fan?"

Asshlin looked slightly distressed.

"You're tired after the journey," he said. "And, anyway, it's one of
her bad days. They come oftener than ever now. To-morrow she'll enjoy
seeing you more."

A quick recollection of her aunt on her bad days swept over Clodagh's
mind; and she looked up suddenly into Larry's handsome, spirited face.

"Is she often cross now, Larry?" she asked, as she might have asked
when they were children.

Asshlin turned at the sound of her voice; his diffidence forsook him;
the old comradeship, the old sense of sympathy and understanding, came
rushing back.

"She is harder than ever to get on with," he said. "And every day seems
worse than the last. Sometimes----" He stopped; but a shadow of
discontent, of depression, had darkened his face.

"Poor Larry!" Clodagh said very softly. And without further comment,
she turned the horse's head in the direction of Orristown.

The cousins spoke rather less during the drive along the low, flat road
lying parallel to the strand; but, despite the silence, each was
conscious of an awakened fellowship; and as they descended the sharp
hill that led to the gates of Orristown, Clodagh pointed with her whip
to where the sky hung low and brooding over the glassy line of the
horizon.

"This heat will break in a storm, Larry," she said, aware of having
spoken the same words a hundred times in almost the same spot.

Asshlin scanned the sea thoughtfully.

"I believe you're right!" he answered. "But a puff of wind would do no
harm. You'd like a scud across the bay, wouldn't you?"

Clodagh's eyes danced.

"Love it!" she substituted enthusiastically. "Come for me at ten
to-morrow, Larry, and we'll sail back together to Carrigmore. We'll
have a long day there and see everything; and then you'll come back
with me to dinner." She flashed a quick smile at him, as she piloted
the trap through the rusty gates.

As they swept up the long, narrow drive, she looked eagerly to right
and left; then suddenly she gave a little laugh of pleasure, and waved
her whip towards a field t