When Mr Prothero finished reading, he hemmed two or three times and cleared his throat, and took off his spectacles and wiped them; then perceiving that his wife was crying like a child, he said,—­

‘Don’t be so fullish!’ Suddenly recollecting himself, he exclaimed, ’Where’s Owen?  Go you, mother, and see if we haven’t had another ‘lopement,’

‘No fear of that,’ said Mrs Prothero, leaving the room to do her husband’s bidding.

She stayed so long that Mr Prothero, out of patience, bustled after her.  He found her standing before an open, half-empty chest of drawers.  The room was very untidy, and here, also, the bed had not been slept in the past night.

Mrs Prothero was rubbing her hands and crying pitifully; more from fear of her husband’s wrath than from sorrow for Owen, because she had anticipated a sudden flight.

Mr Prothero began to stamp with rage.  It was a long time before he could speak, and his wife had a certain fear that he would choke.  At last words found vent.

’The impudent, lying, hypocritical, young baggage!  The ungrateful, disobedient, good-for-nothing brute!  Ach a fi! upon ’em both.  That’s what you get by harbouring Irish beggars!—­that’s the return they make!  A pale-faced, deceitful hussy!’

‘Davy, bach! they are not gone together,’ said Mrs Prothero, half-believing at the same time that they were.

‘Shall I lay breakfast, ma’am?’ interrupted Shanno, putting her head in at the door and grinning suspiciously.

‘Go your way, and mind your own business,’ said Mr Prothero.

Shanno disappeared.

’I’ll go out and see whether either of the horses is gone.  Go you and make breakfast—­the good-for-nothing—­’

‘Just let me tell you first what Owen said to me last night,’ said Mrs Prothero.  ’I don’t think he ever deceived us, Davy; and if he did wrong, he was never the one to hide it.’

’Treue for you!  Well, what did the young scamp say?  I don’t blame him half as much as that meek, pale-faced, still-water thing, who’s as deep as the north star, I’ll be bound.’

’But Owen told me, seriously, that she refused to have anything to say to him, and begged me to be kind to her when he was gone away, for his sake.’

’Nothing but a trap to take you in—­the deceitful young puppies—­the—­the—­’

‘Go and look about the horses and I’ll make breakfast.’

He went accordingly.  All the horses were safe.  Nothing was missing anywhere but Lion.

’I ‘ouldn’t take twenty pounds for that dog,’ said Mr Prothero when he returned to the house, and sat down to breakfast.

‘Hadn’t we better send to look for them?’ asked Mrs Prothero timidly.

’I’ll see ’em hanged first.  What! go and make another hullabaloo all through the country, as if one wasn’t enough in one house.  No, not I. Let ’em go to sea, or where they will; but don’t tell anybody anything about ’em.  Let people think what they will; I only wish I was at the world’s end.  But it’s all your fault.  Do you remember that morning when you bothered me into letting the girl stay?  Fine things have come of it, seure enough.’