und. Then, as she shook her head despondently--the presence of
Asgill had driven her into herself--"Bet you a hundred crowns to one,
Asgill," he said, with a grin, "cousin Sullivan don't recover her!"

"I couldn't afford to take it," Asgill answered, smiling. "But if Miss
Flavia had chosen me for her ambassador in place of him that's
gone----"

"She might have had a better, and couldn't have had a worse!" James
said, with a loud laugh. "It's supper-time," he continued, after he had
turned to the fire, and kicked the turfs together, "and late, too!
Where's Darby? There's never anything but waiting in this house. I
suppose you are not waiting for the mare? If you are, it's empty
insides we'll all be having for a week of weeks."

"I'm much afraid of that," Uncle Ulick answered, as the girl rose.
Uncle Ulick could never do anything but fall in with the prevailing
humour.

Flavia paused half-way across the floor and listened. "What's that?"
she asked, raising her hand for silence. "Didn't you hear something? I
thought I heard a horse."

"You didn't hear a mare," her brother retorted, grinning. "In the
meantime, miss, I'd be having you know we're hungry. And----"

He stopped, startled by a knock on the door. The girl hesitated, then
she stepped to it, and threw it wide. Confronting her across the
threshold, looking ghostly against the dark background of the night, a
grey horse threw up its head and, dazzled by the light, started back a
pace--then blithered gently. In a twinkling, before the men had grasped
the truth, Flavia had sprung across the threshold, her arms were round
her favourite's neck, she was covering its soft muzzle with kisses.

"The saints defend us!" Uncle Ulick cried. "It is the mare!"

In his surprise The McMurrough forgot himself, his role, the company.
"D--n!" he said. Fortunately Uncle Ulick was engrossed in the scene at
the door, and the girl was outside. Neither heard.

Asgill's mortification, as may be believed, was a hundred times deeper.
But his quicker brain had taken in the thing and its consequences on
the instant. And he stood silent.

"She's found her way back!" The McMurrough exclaimed, recovering
himself.

"Ay, lad, that must be it," Uncle Ulick replied. "She's got loose and
found her way back to her stable, heaven be her bed! And them that took
her are worse by the loss of five pounds!"

"Broken necks to them!" The McMurrough cried viciously.

But at that moment the door, whi