Part 18 (1/2)

'That she does! I think she is the haughtiest girl I ever met. To be sure she was a great beauty.'

'_Was_, Harry! What do you mean by ”was”? Lady Maude is not eight-and-twenty.'

'Ain't she, though? Will you have a ten-pound note on it that she's not over thirty-one; and I can tell you who could decide the wager?'

'A delicate thought!--a fellow betting on the age of the girl he's going to marry!'

[Ill.u.s.tration: He entered and Nina arose as he came forward.]

'Ten o'clock!--nearly half-past ten!' said Lockwood, rising from his chair.

'I must go and have some breakfast. I meant to have been down in time to-day, and breakfasted with the old fellow and his daughter; for coming late brings me to a _tete-a-tete_ with the Greek damsel, and it isn't jolly, I a.s.sure you.'

'Don't you speak?'

'Never a word?' She's generally reading a newspaper when I go in. She lays it down; but after remarking that she fears I'll find the coffee cold, she goes on with her breakfast, kisses her Maltese terrier, asks him a few questions about his health, and whether he would like to be in a warmer climate, and then sails away.'

'And how she walks!'

'Is she bored here?'

'She says not.'

'She can scarcely like these people; they 're not the sort of thing she has ever been used to.'

'She tells me she likes them: they certainly like her.'

'Well,' said Lockwood, with a sigh, 'she's the most beautiful woman, certainly, I've ever seen; and, at this moment, I'd rather eat a crust with a gla.s.s of beer under a hedge than I'd go down and sit at breakfast with her.'

'I'll be shot if I'll not tell her that speech the first day I'm down again.'

'So you may, for by that time I shall have seen her for the last time.'

And with this he strolled out of the room and down the stairs towards the breakfast-parlour.

As he stood at the door he heard the sound of voices laughing and talking pleasantly. He entered, and Nina arose as he came forward, and said, 'Let me present my cousin--Mr. Richard Kearney, Major Lockwood; his friend, Mr.

Atlee.'

The two young men stood up--Kearny stiff and haughty, and Atlee with a sort of easy a.s.surance that seemed to suit his good-looking but certainly sn.o.bbish style. As for Lockwood, he was too much a gentleman to have more than one manner, and he received these two men as he would have received any other two of any rank anywhere.

'These gentlemen have been showing me some strange versions of our little incident here in the Dublin papers,' said Nina to Lockwood. 'I scarcely thought we should become so famous.'

'I suppose they don't stickle much for truth,' said Lockwood, as he broke his egg in leisurely fas.h.i.+on.

'They were scarcely able to provide a special correspondent for the event,'

said Atlee; 'but I take it they give the main facts pretty accurately and fairly.'

'Indeed!' said Lockwood, more struck by the manner than by the words of the speaker. 'They mention, then, that my friend received a bad fracture of the forearm.'

'No, I don't think they do; at least so far as I have seen. They speak of a night attack on Kilgobbin Castle, made by an armed party of six or seven men with faces blackened, and their complete repulse through the heroic conduct of a young lady.'