“No, sir; he left with his lordship some time back.”
“Leaving Miss Usher alone?”
“Oh, no, sir. It’s not giv’ out yet exactly on the papers; but she’s keeping company with her ladyship, his lordship’s daughter.”
Captain Deverell stared hard at the waiter, then looked at his friend and laughed. As he resumed his goggles, he exclaimed: “This Ireland is a funny place, isn’t it, Coxy? The land of romance, eh?”
“Yes, one must come to the back of the world for news, I see. Well, now we really must get on. It is past four o’clock.”
And the pair tramped noisily through the hall; and presently the motor departed with a triumphant “Tuff, tuff, tuff!”
CHAPTER XVIII
On the occasion of this visit Miss Usher happened to be laid up with a severe cold, suspiciously akin to a touch of the “flue,” and was nursing herself in her sitting-room. Meanwhile, her young companion had set out for Foley’s Corner, in quest of the white cat, who, despite of his buttered paws, daily returned to his late abode with praiseworthy devotion. It was true that the doors and windows were closed, that there was nothing available to eat or to drink, but nevertheless, he was to be found sitting with pathetic patience on Katty’s window, or making the air hideous with his melancholy caterwaulings.