But what instantly engaged the fearful gaze of the boy were the figures of two ladies; red drugget cloaks they had on, like the peasant girls of Munster and Connaught, and the rest of their dress was pretty much in keeping.  But they had the grand air, the refined expression and beauty, and above all, the serene air of command that belong to people of a higher rank.

The elder, with black hair and full brown eyes, sat writing at the deal table on which the candle stood, and raised her dark gaze to the boy as he came in.  The other, with her hood thrown back, beautiful and riant, with a flood of wavy golden hair, and great blue eyes, and with something kind, and arch, and strange in her countenance, struck him as the most wonderful beauty he could have imagined.

They questioned the man in a language strange to the child.  It was not English, for he had a smattering of that, and the man’s story seemed to amuse them.  The two young ladies exchanged a glance, and smiled mysteriously.  He was more convinced than ever that he was among the good people.  The younger stepped gaily forward and said——­

“Do you know who I am, my little man?  Well, I’m the fairy Una, and this is my palace; and that fairy you see there (pointing to the dark lady, who was looking out something in a box), is my sister and family physician, the Lady Graveairs; and these (glancing at the old man and woman), are some of my courtiers; and I’m considering now what I shall do with you, whether I shall send you to-night to Lough Guir, riding on a rush, to make my compliments to the Earl of Desmond in his enchanted castle; or, straight to your bed, two thousand miles under ground, among the gnomes; or to prison in that little corner of the moon you see through the window—­with the man-in-the-moon for your gaoler, for thrice three hundred years and a day!  There, don’t cry.  You only see how serious a thing it is for you, little boys, to come so near my castle.  Now, for this once, I’ll let you go.  But, henceforward, any boys I, or my people, may find within half a mile round my castle, shall belong to me for life, and never behold their home or their people more.”

And she sang a little air and chased mystically half a dozen steps before him, holding out her cloak with her pretty fingers, and courtesying very low, to his indescribable alarm.

Then, with a little laugh, she said——­

“My little man, we must mend your head.”

And so they washed his scratch, and the elder one applied a plaister to it.  And she of the great blue eyes took out of her pocket a little French box of bon-bons and emptied it into his hand, and she said——­

“You need not be afraid to eat these—­they are very good—­and I’ll send my fairy, Blanc-et-bleu, to set you free.  Take him (she addressed Larry), and let him go, with a solemn charge.”

The elder, with a grave and affectionate smile, said, looking on the fairy——­