‘How soon shall you be sufficiently repaired for a start, Ratia?’ asked Owen, turning quickly round to her. ‘To-morrow? No! Well, I’ll come over and see.’
‘Going away?’ cried the ladies, by no means willing to part with their guardian.
‘Yes, I must. Expecting that we should be parallels never meeting, I had to provide for myself.’
‘I see,’ said Rashe; ‘he has a merry party at Newragh Bridge, and will sit up over whist and punch till midnight!’
‘You don’t pretend to put yourselves in competition,’ said he, snatching at the idea hastily.
‘Oh! no,’ said his sister, with an annoyed gesture. ‘I never expect you to prefer me and my comfort to any one.’
‘Indeed, Cilla, I’m sorry,’ he answered gently, but in perplexity, ‘but I never reckoned on being wanted, and engagements are engagements.’
‘I’m sure I don’t want you when anything pleasanter is going forward,’ she answered, with vexation in her tone.
‘I’ll be here by eleven or twelve,’ he replied, avoiding the altercation; ‘but I must get back now. I shall be waited for.’
‘Who is it that can’t wait?’ asked Rashe.