ust be an end of this foolishness. The two men who knew in what they
worked and had reason in their wrong-doing are beyond seas. We shall
see their faces no more. The McMurrough is not so mad as to wish to act
without them. He"--with a faint smile--"is not implacable. You, Ulick,
are not of the stuff of whom martyrs are made, nor are Mr. Burke and
Sir Donny. But the two young men outside"--he paused as if he
reflected--"they and three or four others are--what my cousin now
listening to me makes them. They are tow, if the flame be brought near
them. And therefore--and therefore," he repeated still more slowly, "I
have spoken the truth and plainly. To this purpose, that there may be
an end."

Flavia had sat at first with closed eyes, in a state next door to
collapse, her head inclined, her arms drooping, as if at any moment she
might sink to the floor. But in the course of his speaking a change had
come over her. The last heavings of the storm, physical and mental,
through which she had passed, still shook her; now a quiver distorted
her features, now a violent shudder agitated her from head to foot. But
the indomitable youth in her, and the spirit which she had inherited
from some dead forefather, were not to be long gainsaid. Slowly, as she
listened--and mainly under the influence of indignation--her colour had
returned, her face grown more firm, her form more stiff. In truth
Colonel John had adopted the wrong course with her. He had been
hard--knowing men better than women--when he should have been mild; he
had browbeaten where he should have forgiven. And so at his last
declaration, "There must be an end," she rose to her feet, and spoke.
And speaking, she showed that neither the failure of her attempt on
him, nor the bodily struggle with him, horribly as it humiliated her in
the remembrance, had quelled her courage.

"An end!" she said, in a voice vibrating with emotion. "Yes, but it
will be an end for you! Children, are we? Well, better that, a thousand
times better that, than be so old before our time, so cold of heart and
cunning of head that there is naught real for us but that we touch and
see, nothing high for us but that our words will be measuring, nothing
worth risk but that we are safe to gain! Children, are we?" she
continued, with deep passion. "But at least we believe! At least we own
something higher than ourselves--a God, a Cause, a Country! At least we
have not bartered all--all three and honour for