Uncle Luke gave his arm to my grandmother and I took my grandfather’s, and we went up in state, with old Dido following us, to the dining-room, where supper was spread and all the silver plate was set out.  There was a roaring fire in the grate and every candle in the big chandelier had been lit, and all was as though the coming of the heir had been long foreseen.

I do not think that in any house in the kingdom there was that night such joy and thanksgiving as in Aghadoe Abbey.

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE OLD LOVERS

After a little while I went away and left them together.

Uncle Luke came with me to the dining-room door and lit my candle for me as though he had never gone away.  When he had lit it he went with me outside the door, and, partly closing it, he said to me—­

“Tell me, Bawn dear, did Mary Champion believe those lies?”

“She knew nothing of them,” I answered.  “They would not tell her the things Garret Dawson had said.  But she would not have believed them.  She was vexed with them for being afraid, because she said she never would believe that you had done anything which could bring disgrace on any one who loved you.”

“My brave girl!” he said softly; and then he said to me with a smile that I had the handsomest and noblest gentleman in the world for a lover, and that my Anthony was coming to me as fast as he could and that they two were sworn brothers.

I ought to have slept the soundest and sweetest sleep in the world, especially as the storm had died down and the ghosts cried no longer and there seemed an atmosphere of peace and happiness over all the house.  But I was disturbed in my dreams by the face of Richard Dawson, who had loved me so much to his own hurt and in my dream I was weeping.

The household was barely astir when I awoke next morning and there was a frosty air.  I lay watching the window awhile as the dark gave place to dusk.  It would be an hour yet before the sun should rise; and a maid came to light my fire and bring me my tea and my bath-water.  But I was too excited to sleep, so I got up and dressed myself in the half light, and when I was ready I put on my outdoor things and went down the stairs.  I met only a young maid sweeping the stairs with her brush and dustpan, and she looked at me as though she thought the joy had driven me mad.

“I shall be back to breakfast, Katty,” I said.  “It is a beautiful frosty morning for a walk.”

“You’re not going to walk in the dark, Miss Bawn?” she said, and stood staring after me over the banisters when I answered her that the sun would soon be up.

I liked the frosty keenness of the air, and this morning my heart was very light.  Although it had rained so heavily in the night the frost had turned everything hard and stiff; but as I ran on my way down the long avenue, and heard the sleepy twittering of the birds, I could have sung for the new, healthy life that was in my veins.  I had not gone far before the sun sent his golden rays above the horizon, and the blue came out in the sky overhead and it was day, and all at once the robins began to sing.