“Masther Hycy.”

“Why is he the bad among you?”

“Thank God I know him now,” she replied, “an' he knows I do; but he doesn't know how well I know him.”

“Why, Nanny, are you in airnest?” asked Bryan, a good deal surprised, and not a little interested at what he heard, “surely I thought Mr. Hycy a good-hearted, generous young fellow that one could depend upon, at all events?”

“Ah, it's little you know him,” she replied; “and I could”—she looked at him and paused.

“You could what?” he asked.

“I could tell you something, but I daren't.”

“Daren't; why what ought you be afraid of?”

“It's no matther, I daren't an' thats enough; only aren't you an' Kathleen Cavanagh goin' to be married?”

“We will be married, I hope.”