"Follow your own heart," said I, mournfully. "But say—can you not give me some hope? Can you not give me one kind word?"
"Oh, dear!" she cried; "it's dreadful. I don't know what to do. It's all a mistake. Oh, I wish you could only know all! And me!! What in the world can I do!"
"Oh, Miss O'Halloran!" said I; "I love you—I adore-you—and—oh, Miss
O'Halloran!—I—"
"Miss O'Halloran!" she cried, starting back as I advanced once more, and tried to take her hand.
"Nora, then," said I. "Dearest, sweetest! You cannot be indifferent. Oh, Nora!" and I grasped her hand.
But at that moment I was startled by a heavy footstep at the door. I dropped Nora's hand, which she herself snatched away, and turned.
IT WAS O'HALLORAN!!!!!
He stood for a moment looking at us, and then he burst out into a roar of laughter.
"Macrorie!" he cried—"Macrorie! May the divil saize me if I don't beleeve that ye're indulgin' in gallanthries."
Now, at that moment, his laughter sounded harsh and ominous; but I had done no wrong, and so, in conscious innocence, I said: