CHAPTER XXI.—THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY.
Through a street in the town of Killarney flashed a red motor car, slowly, because the way was paved with rough cobbles, and there were countless chickens and ducks on the highway, and barefooted children playing at the doors of the thatched-roof cottages.
“Wilhelmina, my dear, you must turn into a better street,” groaned Miss Campbell. “One might as well ride in a ‘jolting car’ and be done with it.”
“You mean a ‘jaunting car,’ Cousin,” exclaimed Billie, obediently turning the motor into a broad, shady avenue. “I only wanted to give you a glimpse into an Irish byway,” she added by way of apology.
“I don’t care to take it in that unnerving fashion,” answered Miss Campbell. “Besides, you will ruin Maria’s voice and make it turn tremolo.”
“I’m not afraid,” laughed Maria Cortinas, sitting on the back seat between Miss Campbell and Elinor Butler. “I’m off on a holiday to enjoy the sights and I shall not remember that I have a voice for several weeks.”
At last they took a road which led to that enchantingly beautiful and historic region, in which lie three exquisite little lakes like three gems in an emerald setting. For some time the way lay between the walls of a great estate, but finally it emerged from those confines and crept down close to the waters. Ranges of mist-clad mountains overhang the chain of lakes, broken at intervals by fairy glens shut in by tall green cliffs. Numbers of little wooded islands dot the waters and everywhere are ancient ruins and the thatched-roof huts of the Irish peasant.
“I wish poor Feargus were with us now,” Miss Campbell remarked regretfully. She had always felt a great tenderness for the Irish boy. “He would have been a splendid guide around the lakes; he told me he knew them well.”
“Poor Feargus,” echoed the others, wondering for the hundredth time what had been the reason for his sudden departure from Edinburgh.
“Do you know that one man owns the town of Killarney and most of the region about the lakes?” announced Mary reading from the guide book.