In a few days Villiers set out for Dublin, where he was to meet his cousin and the rest of the walking party.
[CHAPTER IX.]
VILLIERS.
WHEN Villiers Egerton went to Ireland, nothing seemed less likely than that he would encounter his uncle or any of his cousins. The inhabitants of the county in which Ballintra is situated are wont to boast or to complain (according to their temper) that it is the "end of the world, and leads to nowhere;" nay, I have even heard it called an "after-thought," as if, Ireland being already finished, a little bit of material had been left, and added on to it, to make this county. For all that, it is well worth visiting, though no one visits it, because its beauties are less well known than those of its sister county, Wicklow, or the more distant Lakes of Killarney.
Altogether nothing was less likely than that Villiers Egerton would find his way to the banks of the beautiful Slaney; so his grandfather did not caution him against turning his steps in that direction. But, as time went on, Killarney and the Causeway having been visited in turn, Eustace Villiers was summoned home by the illness of his father, and the merry little party broke up without having made the projected tour in Connemara.
The others all returned, but Villiers was in no hurry to follow their example. Home he was determined not to go until September brought the shooting season round again, when the presence of a few guests would make Egerton Highland more endurable. He had promised Eustace to go with him next year, if possible, to Connemara, so he would not go now in that direction. He had plenty of money, and as Sir Aymer did not know that Eustace's departure had broken up the party, Villiers wrote to tell his mother not to be uneasy if she did not hear from him for some time. And returning to Dublin, he set forth alone to wander through Wicklow, sketching, dawdling, poetising, and thoroughly enjoying himself.
He had a whole month to dispose of, and did not care to keep in the track of the general tourist, so he wandered far and wide, and presently wandered as far as to Newtownbarry, and thence determined to follow the course of the infant Slaney down to the sea, as the beauty of its banks and the scenery all along its course took his fancy greatly; all the more so, because he felt that he was finding it out for himself, instead of obeying guide or guide-books.