"Oh, a hot mash at night," said Henrietta.
"Yus, and why not. Yee are afther no good; but I have the charge o' Fly-away, and I don't say that the stable yard is the right place for little maids. Ye'll forgive me, misses, but it ain't, really it ain't."
The girls walked back slowly and thoughtfully to the house. They had never ridden in their lives, and were not at all anxious to risk their existence on the back of Fly-away. Rich as she was, Mrs. Mostyn, before she became Mrs. O'Brien, had placed her daughters in a very common school, and beyond saying from time to time that she meant to leave them all her money and that they were dear, beautiful girls, she took little or no interest in them. She paid their school fees and their holiday fees, and did not bother about anything else. Her one great object was to keep Mostyn's daughters away from Patrick O'Brien, for she knew perfectly well that her second husband was a very different sort of person from her first. But now the girls were established at Templemore and were bent on mischief. They certainly could not break open the piano, but they might be able to injure the horse.
They conversed in low tones on that subject while they went arm in arm to the house, where Burke, according to custom, was laying a sumptuous tea in the hall. They felt certain they could accomplish it if they took their time over the matter. They did not absolutely want to kill him, but Daisy's idea was to mix something in his hot mash which poor unsuspecting Garry would give him without knowing anything about it. They felt they must be very careful how they set to work. The horse must be brought to the jaws of death, so that it would not be good for anything for a long time afterwards; and that horrid Garry would be dismissed. Oh, it was a jolly, jolly notion, and would pay off Miss Prunes and Prisms, which was their private name for Maureen.
In their father's library there would certainly be some medical books, and they could look up poisons and—hurrah! of course they could buy some at the chemist's, and then Daisy, who was as lithe and slight as an eel, could creep through the windows and administer a sufficient amount of the dose mixed in with the hot mash.
This was their plan of plans. They were consequently in high spirits when they joined their step-father at tea.
CHAPTER XII. POPSY-DAD.
The girls, Henrietta and Daisy, were quite intent on their scheme. They were so intent that it kept them good in other respects. They apologised humbly for the injury done to the grand Blüthner. They were very penitent, and declared that it was just merely a lark, and hoped darling, dearest dad would forgive them.