"Yes; 'She is far from the Land,' and 'The Minstrel Boy,' and 'The Harp that once through Tara's Halls'; but it isn't likely you can touch that. It requires an Irish girl born and bred, with her fingers touching the strings of an Irish harp, and her soul in her eyes, and her heart breaking through the beautiful birdlike voice of her, to give that 'Melody' properly. We'll have it to-night, Biddy, you and I. We'll get the harp brought out on the terrace, and when the moon is up we'll have the dogs lying about, and we'll sing it; you and I."
"Dear, dear, squire," said Lady Kathleen, "if you and Biddy sing 'The Harp that once through Tara's Halls' as you can sing it, you'll give us all the creeps! Why, it seems to be a sort of wail when you two do it. I see the forsaken hall, and the knights, and the chieftains, and the fair ladies! Oh, it's melting, melting! You must provide yourselves with plenty of handkerchiefs, Mayflower and Sophy, if we are going to have that sort of entertainment. But here comes the postbag; I wonder if there's anything for me."
The door of the hall was swung open at the farther end, and a man of about thirty, with bare feet, and dressed in a rough fustian suit, walked up the room, and deposited the thick leather bag by the squire's side.
"Now what did you come in for, Jonas?" he asked. "Weren't any of the other servants about?"
"I couldn't help meself, your honor," said Jonas, pulling his front lock of hair, and looking sheepishly and yet affectionately down the long table. "I was hungering for a sight of Miss Biddy. I hadn't clapped eyes on her sence she came back, and I jest ran foul of them varmints, and made free of the hall. Begging your honor's parding, I hope there's no harm done."
"No, Jonas, not any. Make your bob to Miss Biddy now, and go."
The man bowed low, flashed up two eyes of devotion to the girl's face, and scampered in a shambling kind of way out of the room.
"Good soul, capital soul, that," said the squire, nodding to Janet.
"He seems very devoted," she replied, lowering her eyes to conceal her true feelings.
The squire proceeded to unlock the letter-bag and dispense its contents. Most of the letters were for himself, but there was one thick inclosure for Lady Kathleen.