A very stiff hill moderated the pace, and Finnigan's mare, subsided perforce into a slashing trot, and "took hold of the road" as if she were in a passion with it, and would like to hammer it to pieces with her hoofs. And now at last Helen ventured to release one hand, and look about her; she was struck with the bright, rich verdure of the surrounding scenery—Ireland was well named "The Emerald Isle," she said to herself, as her eyes travelled over a wide expanse of grass, thick hedges powdered with hawthorn, and neighbouring green hills, seemingly patched with golden gorse. Very few houses were visible, no sign of towns or smoky chimneys were to be descried—this was the real unadulterated country, and she drew a long breath of satisfaction, due to a sense of refreshment, and relief. Now and then they passed a big empty place, with shuttered windows; now a prosperous-looking farm, with ricks and slated out-buildings, and now a roadside mud cabin. Finnigan's mare, dashing madly through poultry, pigs, goats, and such sleeping creatures as might be imprudently taking forty winks, in the middle of the little-used highway—which highway, with its overhanging ash-trees, tangled hedges, and wide grass borders, was the prettiest and greenest that Larry's passenger had ever beheld—this much she imparted to him, and he being ripe for conversation, immediately launched forth with the following extraordinary announcement:—
"Och, but if ye had seen these roads before they were made! 'tis then ye might be talkin'! There was no ways of getting about in ould times—no play for a free-going one like this," nodding exultingly at the chestnut, who was flying down hill at a pace that made the post-car literally bound off the ground. "She's going illigant now—these chestnuts does mostly be a bit 'hot'—but where would ye see a better traveller on all the walls of the worruld?"
"She is not quite trained, is she?"
"Well, not to say all out," he admitted reluctantly; "she's had the harness on her about a dozen times, and she never did no harm—beyond the day she ran away at Dan Clancy's funeral, and broke up a couple of cars; and 'twas Finnigan himself was in fault—he'd had a drop. Shure, she's going now like a ladies' pony! Maybe you'd like to take the reins in your hands yourself, miss, and just feel her mouth?"
But Helen, casting her eyes over the long, raking animal in front of her, and observing her starting eyes, quivering ears, and tightly tucked-in tail, had no difficulty in resisting Larry's alluring offer. Little did she know the vast honour she was rejecting. Larry (like most Irishmen) was not insensible to a pretty face, and rating this young lady's courage beyond its deserts—owing to her equanimity during their recent gallop, and the tenacity of her hold upon the jaunting car—paid her the greatest compliment in his power, when he offered her the office of Jehu. Helen having politely but firmly, declined the reins, breathed an inward wish that the animal who had behaved so mischievously at Dan Clancy's funeral, would continue her present sober frame of mind until she was deposited at the gates of Crowmore. And now Larry began to play the cicerone, and commenced to point out various objects of interest, with the end of his whip, and the zest of a native.
"That's Nancy's Cover," he said, indicating a patch of gorse. "There does be a brace of foxes in it every season—that ditch beyond,—running along in company with the cover, as far as your eye will carry you,—goes by the name of 'Gilbert's Gripe,' because it was there—a nephew of Mr. Redmond's I think he was, in the horse soldiers—pounded every other mother's son in the field! Be jabers, I never saw such a lep! and the harse—the very same breed of this mare here—he never laid an iron to it! That's Mr. Redmond's place, in the trees beyond, and beyant again is the Castle. What relation did ye say ye wor to Mr. Sheridan?"
Helen was not aware that she had mentioned Mr. Sheridan at all, but she replied,—
"His niece—his wife's niece."
"You never saw him, I'll go bail?"
"No, never; but why do you think so?"