‘Weren’t they proud of it? Won’t they tell how the young lord shared their meal with them?’
‘I don’t think they are as cordial as they used to be, Kate; they did not talk so openly, nor seem at their ease, as I once knew them. And they did one thing, significant enough in its way, that I did not like. They quoted the county newspaper twice or thrice when we talked of the land.’
‘I am aware of that, Dick; they have got other counsellors than their landlords now,’ said she mournfully, ‘and it is our own fault if they have.’
‘What, are you turning Nationalist, Kitty?’ said he, laughing.
‘I was always a Nationalist in one sense,’ said she, ‘and mean to continue so; but let us not get upon this theme. Do you know that Peter Gill has left us?’
‘What, for America?’
‘No; for “O’Shea’s Barn.” Miss Betty has taken him. She came here to-day to “have it out” with papa, as she said; and she has kept her word. Indeed, not alone with him, but with all of us—even Nina did not escape.’
‘Insufferable old woman. What did she dare to say to Nina?’
‘She got off the cheapest of us all, Dick,’ said she, laughing. ‘It was only some stupid remark she made her about looking like a boy, or being dressed like a rope-dancer. A small civility of this sort was her share of the general attention.’
‘And how did Nina take the insolence?’