"Speak lower, ma'am: he may be in hearin'!" she said anxiously. "He's that strange he does be appearin' when least you expect."
"Well, in any case, I knew you would not oppose her going with me to America."
"To America, is it?" cried the woman, bristling up as fiercely almost as Niall himself. "Oh, then, how am I to know that you're playin' me no tricks—that you haven't been sent to take her away from us?"
"Mrs. Meehan," I said gravely, "I gave you my word as a lady that I knew nothing of her till I came here."
"I ax your pardon!" she said humbly. "But, O ma'am dear, think of America, over the big ocean, and me sittin' here alone among the hills, powerless to go to her if she needs me!"
"She will be taken good care of," I said. "I shall put her in a convent, where she will be thoroughly educated and prepared for the part she has to play in life."
"And will she be goin' away from the old land forever?" she asked, clasping her feeble hand over her heart.
"By no means. It is my hope and wish that she come back here."
"But him you call the schoolmaster will never allow it!" she cried, with something of the same triumph which had appeared in Winifred's face.
"The schoolmaster has already given his consent," I said quietly.