"And is less inconvenient than jail! Well, I daresay you will be smart enough even for some of them."
"Shure, how would I be smart, that never had no book learning?" protested Darby scornfully. "Look here, Mr. Gilbert, if that's your young lady—and, faix, it looks like it—I never saw any one make a worse hand of coortin' than yourself. Raally, I'm surprised at ye! You at one side of the gate, and her at the other. Miss Helen," now turning to her, "I suppose ye may as well have this brace of grouse," producing the birds from his pocket. "And with regard to that little account you were spakin' of, and the other change, I'll send it up the first thing in the morning, and may be you won't let on, but it was a mistake."
"Indeed, Darby, I shall tell the whole truth," cried Helen indignantly. "You need not expect me to keep such a thing secret."
"Well, I'll be out of it to-morrow! so it's no great matter. Good-bye, Mr. Gilbert; good-bye, Miss Helen. You and I were never very thick, still I wish you both luck and grace, and that you may live long and die happy," and picking up his cap and gun, Mr. Darby Chute walked away with considerable dignity.
"There's a nice ruffian for you!" exclaimed Gilbert emphatically.
"Yes; and to think how he must have robbed uncle, and poor Dido!"
"And to think of the years he has been poaching the country. However, never mind him now, we have something else to talk about."
"But there's the stable clock striking eight, and I must go. And it's your dinner-hour at Ballyredmond."
"Not to-night.—To-night I don't want any dinner. (Could manly devotion go further?) I am going to walk back with you. Thank goodness, there is no Mrs. Creery to hustle me away this time."
To his proposal the young lady made no demur, no protestations; not even when he insisted on taking her home by the longest way, up the hill, out by the road, and in by the new avenue! The whole distance was about three-quarters of a mile; the time occupied three-quarters of an hour; the moon, a full harvest moon, had risen, and the twilight had given place to a light almost as clear as day. Seated on her own door-step, smoking her little dhudeen, they descried the "Fancy,"—and she saw them! The unexpected appearance of an interesting-looking young couple strolling down the road, was a welcome windfall to this active old woman, who instantly sprang up, and darted out, to waylay them with her invariable whine of,—