Miss Campbell was somewhat nonplussed. It seemed rather a stiff price to pay for having stepped across the bars into a meadow. But Mary Price, well up in English grammar and quick to notice shades of meaning, now stepped into the breach. She was trembling a little at her own boldness, but her voice, with its sweet high note, was clear and steady.
“Five pounds is the correct amount,” she said. “The sign reads: ‘A fine of five pounds will be charged against persons found trespassing on these grounds.’ You should have said ‘each person’ if you meant to charge so much.”
Mary’s friends could have hugged her for this astute observation, and even the cold and bloodless Duke of Kilkenty showed a flicker of admiration.
“You are a very clever young woman,” he said. “It’s the first time in my life I have ever been outwitted by a woman, old or young. You may go free.”
Miss Campbell tossed her head.
“Free, indeed! We are free. Free-born Americans,” she thought.
“As for you, young man,” continued the Duke, turning to Feargus, whose blue eyes were still blazing with rage. “Take yourself out of this neighborhood at once or it will be the worse for you.”
Feargus gazed fearlessly into the man’s eyes.
“Now, by all the saints, neither you nor any other man can order me out of this neighborhood for doing no wrong. I’ll take myself off your grounds, and take pleasure in doing it. I would not have put foot to the soil here if I’d known who owned it. But as for leaving the neighborhood, I’ll leave it when I get ready and no sooner, and I’m not afraid of the Duke of Kilkenty nor any other Irishman turned English.”
All this time Billie had been trying to keep her balance. The fields seemed to be swimming around her and she had a dizzy feeling, as if her feet were going to rise over her head.