impulsive
offer on his part to take him into the store. It was made on the spur
of the moment, and Mahony had qualms about it while his words were
still warm on the air, realizing that the overture was aimed, not at
Ned in person, but at Ned as Polly's brother. But his intuition did not
reconcile him to Ned's luke-warmness; he would have preferred a
straight refusal. The best trait he could discover in the lad was his
affection for his sister. This seemed genuine: he was going to see her
again--getting a lift halfway, tramping the other twenty odd miles--at
the end of the week. Perhaps though, in the case of such a young
opportunist, the thought of Mrs. Beamish's lavish board played no small
part; for Ned had a rather lean, underfed look. But this only occurred
to Mahony afterwards. Then, his chief vexation was with himself: it
would have been kinder to set a dish of solid food before the boy, in
place of the naked sherry-bottle. But as usual, his hospitable leanings
came too late.

One thing more. As he lighted Ned and his bundle of stuff through the
shop, he was impelled to slip a coin into the boy's hand, with a
murmured apology for the trouble he had put him to. And a something,
the merest nuance in Ned's manner of receiving and pocketing the money,
flashed the uncomfortable suspicion through the giver's mind that it
had been looked for, expected. And this was the most unpleasant touch
of all.

But, bless his soul! did not most large families include at least one
poorish specimen?--he had got thus far, by the time he came to wind up
his watch for the night. And next day he felt sure he had judged Ned
over-harshly. His first impressions of people--he had had occasion to
deplore the fact before now--were apt to be either dead white or black
as ink; the web of his mind took on no half tints. The boy had not
betrayed any actual vices; and time might be trusted to knock the
bluster out of him. With this reflection Mahony dismissed Ned from his
mind. He had more important things to think of, chief among which was
his own state with regard to Ned's sister. And during the fortnight
that followed he went about making believe to weigh this matter, to
view it from every coign; for it did not suit him, even in secret, to
confess to the vehemence with which, when he much desired a thing, his
temperament knocked flat the hurdles of reason. The truth was, his mind
was made up--and had been, all along. At the earliest possible
o