‘Tell me, really, what would you do if we made you take the oath?’
‘Betray you, of course, the moment I got up to Dublin.’
Nina’s eyes flashed angrily, as though such jesting was an offence.
‘No, no, the shame of such treason would be intolerable; but you’d go your way and behave as though you never saw us.’
‘Oh, he could do that without the inducement of a perjury,’ said Nina, in Italian; and then added aloud, ‘Let’s go and make some music. Mr. Walpole sings charmingly, Kate, and is very obliging about it—at least he used to be.’
‘I am all that I used to be—towards that,’ whispered he, as she passed him to take Kate’s arm and walk away.
‘You don’t mean to have a thick neighbourhood about you,’ said Walpole. ‘Have you any people living near?’
‘Yes, we have a dear old friend—a Miss O’Shea, a maiden lady, who lives a few miles off. By the way, there’s something to show you—an old maid who hunts her own harriers.’