Volume I Part 16 (1/2)

'There's many a stout fellow about, whose heart it would plase if ye'd rub your pretty brogues on it, who'd like to set fire to the tobaccy in his pipe every blessed day by the light of your lovely eyes.'

Doreen glanced up at the giant with an amused smile.

'Fie! Mr. Ca.s.sidy. If I didn't think you too sensible a man, I should believe you were trying to propose to me.' Then it struck her that it was on this very spot that Terence had asked if he might hope.

'What possesses the men? How odd it is,' she said, thinking aloud.

'Fate settled long since that I was to die an old maid; and everybody seems to want to marry me. Why? I am surely not so irresistible? There are scores of girls who would be delighted to marry any one, but somehow n.o.body cares to ask them! Why not try Norah Gillin--Shane at least thinks her a paragon--and she has the advantage of being a Protestant.'

'Miss Doreen,' Ca.s.sidy whispered, 'if I undertook to work heart and soul for the cause you care so much for; if I made use of my opportunities--went about for you--as your agents do (you see I know all about it); if, when the hour comes, I promised to risk my life and all I have for you--'tisn't much--would you change your mind then?'

Miss Wolfe felt his hot breath upon her hair, and began to feel uncomfortable. It was her own fault. She should have cried 'Down!' to this importunate dog before.

'Mr. Ca.s.sidy,' she said, with the quiet dignity which was her best protection, 'you show yourself in a false light. You belong to the society--I fully believe--from conviction of the holiness of its aims.

Although a Protestant, you are an Irishman, as I am an Irishwoman. Our wrongs are common. Don't let me suppose you to be suggesting a bargain.'

'It is that good-for-nothing young councillor!' the giant muttered, grinding his teeth fiercely. 'If I was sure of it, I'd run him through! Have a care, young lady; don't trifle with honest men--or wigs will be on the green, and you may be sorry!'

The interview was becoming extremely painful. Ca.s.sidy, when tried, was showing the cloven foot, as under-bred persons will. Miss Wolfe drew herself up to her full height, knitted her dark brows, and said coldly:

'You forget yourself strangely, sir! My aunt and my cousin have been over-kind to you; I have tried, for my poor part, to make your visits pleasant, believing you, as I still believe, to be honest, if bearish and uncouth. If you dare to persecute me any further I will speak to my aunt, and the doors of the Abbey will be closed to you for ever.

Then seeing how rueful, how dismayed the hapless giant looked, she took compa.s.sion and held out a frank little brown hand. 'Come, come!

This is childish nonsense. I must not be hard on you. We must not quarrel, you know, but cling together closely for the good cause's sake. If petty private feuds begin to divide us, the enemy will dance for joy. I want a friend in whom to trust. You shall be that friend.

Will you? Come! Be good, and I will pardon you.'

She placed her hand in his, where it lay like a small leaf, and her companion said sulkily, as he stroked it with a great finger:

'You evaded the question about Mr. Crosbie.'

'Well then,' she answered, 'I care no more for him than for Shane or you. I will never marry till Erin is righted. Ah me! doesn't that look like perpetual maidenhood? My husband, too, must have won his spurs as a hero, and heroes are scarce. There. Shake hands, and let there be an end of it. Your heart is in the cause, as mine is. Your acts speak for you, and Theobald shall thank you some day. Depend on it, the best tenure of earthly attachment is tenancy at will. You have the use of the soil, and nothing you plant in it shoots so deeply but it may be removed with ease. Let us be friends--trusty friends, Mr. Ca.s.sidy--no more.'

At this juncture, Terence came briskly round the corner, and started to see the att.i.tude of the twain. His sudden suspicion cooled, however, upon perceiving that his cousin was no whit confused. Her hand still remained in that of Ca.s.sidy, and she said, laughing, as she swung it to and fro:

'Here is a big creature who threatens by-and-by to bud into a hero of romance. When he kneels victorious in the lists, I, as queen of beauty, am to bestow the laurel crown. What a delectable picture, isn't it? Glad to see you, Terence. You are determined we shall value your society. You give us so very little of it.'

'You look like having quite enough of it by-and-by,' Terence answered moodily. 'I brought with me a note from Mr. Curran to my mother, in which he says that he won't have me at the Priory any more; that I must come home like an obedient child, and wash my face and brush my hair and say I'm sorry. If I had known what was in the letter I should have stayed away.'

'But you'll stop,' Doreen said, so earnestly as to cause the giant to look askance at her. 'It is sad for members of a family to be at daggers-drawn. Come--to please me--let me be peacemaker. Shane shall say you are welcome, and we'll all be in harmony together again.

Promise me--and I'll tell you some rare news that has been burning my tongue this month past. You are both to be trusted, I know.'

'I would every one was as thrue as the councillor here and I!'

e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the giant, his frown breaking into suns.h.i.+ne, as if suddenly convinced, by some queer reasoning, that there was nothing between Terence and Miss Wolfe. 'It's mighty careful we'll have to be by-and-by with them rapscallions of ould Sirr's. Wisht! now, and I'll tell ye what he told me,' he pursued, lowering his voice and glancing round as though the dogs could speak. 'There's a place called the Staghouse, over foreninst Kilmainham gaol, bad cess to it, where the Battalion of Testimony are housed and fed, as these hounds are. They have their rations and potteen and a penny or two for toh-baccy--for all the world like gentlemen born. I'll make it my business to stroll in there some day, just to draw their pictures on my mind's eye. Maybe it'll be useful to know the spalpeens' faces.'

'This system of spies is terribly base,' Terence said, sighing.

'Enough to bring down chastis.e.m.e.nt upon any cause. I don't believe Lord Camden knows of it. The gentry are arming right and left, my mother says, in case the people should be ill-advised enough to rise.

Yeomanry corps are being formed in every county. Shane has been this morning applied to, to take the lead in this district.'

'Shane raise a regiment? With what result?' Doreen inquired quickly.