“No!”
“I go on to Carrick-na-cushla with the Darcys.”
“I thought as much, Bertie. What shall I tell them in New York?”
“That I shall bring home a young, lovely, pure, and charming wife, if I can. I have two letters for you, one for my mother and one for my father. If things turn out—all right, I’ll return; if—” here he paused with a writhe—“all wrong, you won’t hear of me for some time.”
Dr. Bertram Martin’s three months’ vacation is not yet over. It threatens to lengthen into six, possibly into nine months; and when he returns he will not return alone. His uncle Kirwan has had a sad time of it ever since; and Dr. Martin’s fair patients are inconsolable.
ROSARY STANZAS.
PROLOGUE.
Mulier amicta sole, et luna sub pedibus ejus, et in capite ejus corona stellarum duodecim.—Apoc. xii. 1.
Cloudless her early dawn, more pure, more bright