"Oh! Uncle Blair! Yes, of course he's here, only I forgot all about him."
"You don't see much of him?"
"No," said Murtagh, with a chuckle; "he thinks we're perfect savages. He has breakfast with us, because he thinks he ought to; but you should see how funny he looks. I believe he's always expecting us to set upon him and eat him, or do something of that kind."
"Hullo, Mrs. Donegan!" he called out suddenly, as a good-humored, shrewd-looking woman entered the hall. "There you are! and it's high time you came, too. Here's a poor lady freezing just for want of some one to show her to her room. Allow me to introduce Mrs. Bridget Donegan Esquire of Tipperary."
Adrienne acknowledged the introduction with a smile, and Mrs. Donegan, curtseying, began at once to apologize for not having met her at the door.
"It's very sorry I am, Ma'am, that you should have been kept sitting out here. I've been waiting this last half-hour to hear the bell go," she began with much respectful dignity. And then suddenly turning round upon the children: "It's you, Master Murtagh, might ha' thought to ring it; and where's your manners, Miss Rose, to keep Miss Blair sitting out here in the cold instead of taking her into the drawing-room?"
"It's not very cold," said Adrienne, with a smiling glance at the fire. And Mrs. Donegan continued: "Mr. Blair desired his compliments, Ma'am, and he was sorry he was engaged to dine out the evening you arrived, but he hoped the young ladies and gentlemen would make you comfortable. And, if you please, Ma'am, I've boiled a couple of fowls for you, and there's a nice little drop o' soup; and will you have dinner served in the dining-room, or wouldn't it be more comfortable, if I sent it up with the children's tea into the schoolroom?"
"Oh, I should like that much the best, please," said Adrienne.
"Then it's no use going to that smelly old drawing-room!" exclaimed Murtagh. "Come along to the schoolroom."
He turned round as he spoke, and led the way across the hall. He told Ellie to run on and open the door, so that there might be some light in the passage; but her little fingers not proving strong enough to turn the handle, the whole party had to grope their way in the dark. At the end of a long passage Rosie threw open a door, saying: "Here's the schoolroom! It's not particularly tidy. We did make it neat this morning, but somehow it always gets wrong again."