not be right that such a one as she should be made Countess of Scroope.  Not only would she disgrace the place, but she would be unhappy in it, and would shame him.  After all the promises that he had made he could not, and he would not, take her to Scroope as his wife.  How could she hold up her head before such women as Sophie Mellerby and others like her?  It would be known by all his friends that he had been taken in and swindled by low people in the County Clare, and he would be regarded by all around him as one who had absolutely ruined himself.  He had positively resolved that she should not be Countess of Scroope, and to that resolution he would adhere.  The foul-mouthed priest had called him a coward, but he would be no coward.  The mother had said that she would have his life.  If there were danger in that respect he must encounter it.  As he returned to Ennistimon he again determined that Kate O’Hara should never become Countess of Scroope.

For three hours Father Marty remained with him that night, but did not shake him.  He had now become accustomed to the priest’s wrath and could endure it.  And he thought also that he could now endure the mother.  The tears of the girl and her reproaches he still did fear.

“I will do anything that you can dictate short of that,” he said again to Father Marty.

“Anything but the one thing that you have sworn to do?”

“Anything but the one thing that I have sworn not to do.”  For he had told the priest of the promises he had made both to his uncle and to his uncle’s widow.

“Then,” said the priest, as he crammed his hat on his head, and shook the dust off his feet, “if I were you I would not go to Ardkill to-morrow if I valued my life.”  Nevertheless Father Marty slept at Ennistimon that night, and was prepared to bar the way if any attempt at escape were made.

CHAPTER XI.

On the cliffs.

No attempt at escape was made.  The Earl breakfasted by himself at about nine, and then lighting a cigar, roamed about for a while round the Inn, thinking of the work that was now before him.  He saw nothing of Father Marty though he knew that the priest was still in Ennistimon.  And he felt that he was watched.  They might have saved themselves that trouble, for he certainly had no intention of breaking his word to them.  So he told himself, thinking as he did so, that people such as these could not understand that an Earl of Scroope would not be untrue to his word.  And yet since he had been back in County Clare he had almost regretted that he had not broken his faith to them and remained in England.  At half-past ten he started on a car, having promised to be at the cottage at noon, and he told his servant that he should certainly leave Ennistimon that day at three.  The horse and gig were to be ready for him exactly at that hour.