fe given to good works and
gracious usefulness. To-day, with all the vivacity of interest in the
people and the place which one might look for in a woman of twenty, this
charming old lady of eighty-three, showing barely threescore years in
her carriage, her countenance, and her voice, entertained us with minute
and most interesting accounts of the local industries which flourish
here mainly through her sympathetic and intelligent supervision. We
seemed to be in another world from the Ireland of Chicago or
Westminster!

Mr. Seigne drove me back here by a most picturesque road leading along
the banks of the Nore, quite overhung with trees, which in places dip
their branches almost into the swift deep stream. "This is the favourite
drive of all the lovers hereabouts," he said, "and there is a spice of
danger in it which makes it more romantic. Once, not very long ago, a
couple of young people, too absorbed in their love-making to watch their
horse, drove off the bank. Luckily for them they fell into the branches
of one of these overhanging trees, while the horse and car went plunging
into the water. There they swung, holding each other hand in hand,
making a pretty and pathetic tableau, till their cries brought some
anglers in a boat on the river to the rescue."

We spoke of Lady Louisa, and of the watch of Waterloo. "That watch had a
wonderful escape a few years ago," said Mr. Seigne.

Lady Louisa, it seems, had a confidential butler whom she most
implicitly trusted. One day it was found that a burglary had apparently
been committed at Woodstock, and that with a quantity of jewelry the
priceless watch had vanished. The butler was very active about the
matter, and as no trace could be found leading out of the house, he
intimated a suspicion that the affair might possibly have some
connection with a guest not long before at the house. This angered Lady
Louisa, who thereupon consulted the agent, who employed a capable
detective from Dublin. The detective came down to Inistiogue as a
commercial traveller, wandered about, made the acquaintance of Lady
Louisa's maid, of the butler, and of other people about the house, and
formed his own conclusions. Two or three days after his arrival he
walked into the shop of a small jeweller in a neighbouring town, and
affecting a confidential manner, told the jeweller he wanted to buy
"some of those things from Woodstock." The man was taken by surprise,
and going into a backshop produced