“Tell me what puzzles you.”
“No, sir, I really couldn’t make so free”; and she moved a step, as if to pass on.
Two long hours lay between him and dinner. Young Doran had nothing particular to do; his mother was irritable and continually scolding some one. It was rather pleasant, standing in this fragrant lane, talking to this pretty, shy, yet audacious colleen.
“You have been up at the Castle, I presume?” he continued.
“Yes, your honour, selling eggs to her ladyship.”
“I hope you make a good thing out of it?”
“Well,” a pause, “I just bid to take what her ladyship gives me—sixpence the dozen, and young chickens a shilling a couple.”
“A shilling—a—a—couple!” he repeated; and he felt his face becoming warm.
“Well, of course I could get more in the market, or even from the hawkers,” she continued, “but ye see we live on the land, and her ladyship has the first call, and—and—anyhow, though the price is not much, the Castle is convenient-like.”