Comerford had
looked for such a likeness and been disappointed.

She let her thoughts slip away from things around her. She asked
herself whether in the circumstance Mrs. Wade was a fit companion for
her daughter, and answered herself, with a little scorn, that there was
nothing to fear from the mother's influence. She remembered something
she had caught sight of at the end of a little cross-passage in
Waterfall Cottage. There was a statue, a throbbing rosy lamp in the
darkness. Mrs. Wade was at 7 o'clock Mass at the Convent every morning
despite her recluse habits. She was a good woman, whatever there was
in her past.

Lady O'Gara recalled herself with a start to the things about her. How
long had her thoughts been straying? Not very long, for the plates
were being taken away that had been full when last she was aware of
them.

Her eyes rested on Eileen's face. A name caught her ear--Robin
Gillespie. Oh, that was the doctor's son of whom Eileen had spoken
with a certain consciousness. Eileen's manner had suggested that Robin
Gillespie was in love with her, while she said: "Of course he has not a
penny and never will have."

Eileen was listening now, absorbed in what Major Evelyn was saying.
Her lips were parted, her eyes and colour bright. The air of slackness
which so often dulled her beauty had disappeared. For once she was
animated.

Major Evelyn perceived that his hostess was listening and turned to her
with a courteous intention to include her in the conversation. He was
charming to all women, this big man, with the irresistible gaiety.
Poor Eileen, she had been playing off all her little charms upon him,
and in vain. He showed openly his preference for an old woman, as Mary
O'Gara called herself in her thoughts, wincing a little.

"I've discovered that Miss Creagh knows Gillespie, the young doctor who
has defied all the Army Regulations. It was quite an excitement in
India. The Rajah of Bundelpore had a very bad attack of Indian cholera
one night. His own doctors could do nothing for him. Some one--the
Rajah's heir who had been at Harrow, probably--sent over for the
regimental doctor, who happened to be Gillespie. He found all sorts of
devilry going on while the Rajah writhed and turned black and green.
Gillespie took him in hand--I heard his treatment was nearly as weird
as that of the native doctors. There was something about blackberry
jam stirred in boiling water for an astringent