Part 111 (1/2)

'No, my lord; I have no talent for games, but I like to look at the players.'

Joe touched d.i.c.k with his foot, and shot a cunning glance towards him, as though to say, 'Was I not correct in all I said?'

'Couldn't you sing us something, my dear? we're not such infatuated gamblers that we'll not like to hear you--eh, Atlee?'

'Well, my lord, I don't know, I'm not sure--that is, I don't see how a memory for trumps is to be maintained through the fascinating charm of mademoiselle's voice. And as for cards, it's enough for Miss Kostalergi to be in the room to make one forget not only the cards, but the Fenians.'

'If it was only out of loyalty, then, I should leave you!' said she, and walked proudly away.

CHAPTER Lx.x.xIV

NEXT MORNING

The whist-party did not break up till nigh morning. The sergeant had once appeared at the drawing-room to announce that all was quiet without. There had been no sign of any rising of the people, nor any disposition to molest the police. Indeed, so peaceful did everything look, and such an air of easy indifference pervaded the country, the police were half disposed to believe that the report of Donogan being in the neighbourhood was unfounded, and not impossibly circulated to draw off attention from some other part of the country.

This was also Lord Kilgobbin's belief. 'The man has no friends, or even warm followers, down here. It was the merest accident first led him to this part of the country, where, besides, we are all too poor to be rebels. It's only down in Meath, where the people are well off, and rents are not too high, that people can afford to be Fenians.'

While he was enunciating this fact to Curtis, they were walking up and down the breakfast-room, waiting for the appearance of the ladies to make tea.

'I declare it's nigh eleven o'clock,' said Curtis, 'and I meant to have been over two baronies before this hour.'

'Don't distress yourself, captain. The man was never within fifty miles of where we are. And why would he? It is not the Bog of Allen is the place for a revolution.'

'It's always the way with the people at the Castle,' grumbled out Curtis.

'They know more of what's going on down the country than we that live here!

It's one despatch after another. Head-centre Such-a-one is at the ”Three Cripples.” He slept there two nights; he swore in fifteen men last Sat.u.r.day, and they'll tell you where he bought a pair of corduroy breeches, and what he ate for his breakfast--'

'I wish we had ours,' broke in Kilgobbin. 'Where's Kate all this time?'

'Papa, papa, I want you for a moment; come here to me quickly,' cried Kate, whose head appeared for a moment at the door. 'Here's very terrible tidings, papa dearest,' said she, as she drew him along towards his study.

'Nina is gone! Nina has run away!'

'Run away for what?'

'Run away to be married; and she is married. Read this, or I'll read it for you. A country boy has just brought it from Maryborough.'

Like a man stunned almost to insensibility, Kearney crossed his hands before him, and sat gazing out vacantly before him.

'Can you listen to me? can you attend to me, dear papa?'

'Go on,' said he, in a faint voice.

'It is written in a great hurry, and very hard to read. It runs thus: ”Dearest,--I have no time for explainings nor excuses, if I were disposed to make either, and I will confine myself to a few facts. I was married this morning to Donogan--the rebel: I know you have added the word, and I write it to show how our sentiments are united. As people are p.r.o.ne to put into the lottery the number they have dreamed of, I have taken my ticket in this greatest of all lotteries on the same wise grounds. I have been dreaming adventures ever since I was a little child, and it is but natural that I marry an adventurer.”'

A deep groan from the old man made her stop; but as she saw that he was not changed in colour or feature, she went on--

'”He says he loves me very dearly, and that he will treat me well. I like to believe both, and I do believe them. He says we shall be very poor for the present, but that he means to become something or somebody later on. I do not much care for the poverty, if there is hope; and he is a man to hope with and to hope from.