“Our meeting—and parting,” she added quickly.

“Why parting?”

“Because you are going to America, and I am going to France. Yes”—in answer to his look—“as soon as my father returns, next week, I believe. You know, I’m half French and half English.”

“Yes, and half-hearted.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you don’t seem happy.”

“That’s true. Ye see how it is; I’m neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. Too fine for the folks in Ireland, and not up to the mark over here. I was twenty-one years too long in a cottage. I will never be a lady.”

“Would you like to return to the Corner, and be Mary Foley?”

“Oh no, I could never go back to that,” she answered with emphasis. “There is my father, who is more than good to me; and Tito too. But I’m not denying, that I don’t care very much for the crowd in the house.”

“I daresay not. I know the set; you are a bit out of it?”