"Well, then, it says mighty little for our race, father."
"Ah! But it did not fall into the state you saw it in till my father died, a year after I got my commission."
"I won't blame them, then; but, at any rate, I am glad I am coming home to a house and not to a ruin.
"Ah, that is more like a home!" he said, as a turn of the road brought them in sight of the building. "You have done wonders, Mary. That is a house fit for any Irish gentleman to live in."
"It has been altered so that it can be added to, Terence; but, at any rate, it is comfortable. As it was before, it made one feel rheumatic to look at it."
On arriving at the house, Terence refused all assistance.
"I am going to be independent, as far as I can," he said and, slipping down from the seat into the bottom of the chaise, he was able to put his foot on to the ground and, by the aid of his crutches, to get out and enter the house unaided.
"That is the old parlour, I think," he said, glancing into one of the rooms.
"Yes. It is your father's snuggery, now. There is scarcely any alteration there, and he can mess about as he likes with his guns and fishing tackle and swords.
"This is the dining room, now."