of the priest, and could only be used as a prelude to his viler proposal.  And, though he loved the girl after his fashion, he desired to wound her by no such vile proposal.  He did not wish to live a life of sin, if such life might be avoided.  If he made his proposal, it would be but for her sake; or rather that he might show her that he did not wish to cast her aside.  It was by asserting to himself that for her sake he would relinquish his own rank, were that possible, that he attempted to relieve his own conscience.  But, in the mean time, she was in his arms talking about their joint future home!  “Where do you think of living?” asked Mrs. O’Hara in a tone which shewed plainly the anxiety with which she asked the question.

“Probably abroad,” he said.

“But mother may go with us?” The girl felt that the tension of his arm was relaxed, and she knew that all was not well with him.  And if there was ought amiss with him, how much more must it be amiss with her?  “What is it, Fred?” she said.  “There is some secret.  Will you not tell it to me?” Then she whispered into his ear words intended for him alone, though her mother heard them.  “If there be a secret you should tell it me now.  Think how it is with me.  Your words are life and death to me now.”  He still held her with loosened arms but did not answer her.  He sat, looking out into the middle of the room with fixed eyes, and he felt that drops of perspiration were on his brow.  And he knew that the other woman was glaring at him with the eyes of an injured lioness, though he did not dare to turn his own to her face.  “Fred, tell me; tell me.”  And Kate rose up, with her knees upon the sofa, bending over him, gazing into his countenance and imploring him.

“There must be disappointment,” he said; and he did not know the sound of his own voice.

“What disappointment?  Speak to me.  What disappointment?”

“Disappointment!” shrieked the mother.  “How disappointment?  There shall be no disappointment.”  Rising from her chair, she hurried across the room, and took her girl from his arms.  “Lord Scroope, tell us what you mean.  I say there shall be no disappointment.  Sit away from him, Kate, till he has told us what it is.”  Then they heard the sound of a horse’s foot passing close to the window, and they all knew that it was the priest.  “There is Father Marty,” said Mrs. O’Hara.  “He shall make you tell it.”

“I have already told him.”  Lord Scroope as he said this rose and moved towards the door; but he himself was almost unconscious of the movement.  Some idea probably crossed his mind that he would meet the priest, but Mrs. O’Hara thought that he intended to escape from them.

She rushed between him and the door and held him with both her hands.  “No; no; you do not leave us in that way, though you were twice an Earl.”

“I am not thinking of leaving you.”

“Mother, you shall not hurt him; you shall not insult him,” said the girl.  “He does not mean to harm me.  He is my own, and no one shall touch him.”