"Married John Mansfield," repeated the old man, "one of the Desmonds married _you_?" "She did, sir, and she's a good woman. She's real aunt to little Margot." "I call her a scourge," said The Desmond. "She never did anything that anyone else did. She was the torment of my life. But still for her to demean herself by marrying Farmer Mansfield's son!" "He's better than she is, father, ten thousand times better," interrupted Fergus. "Don't you turn on him. He's gone through enough. The little one would not be alive now but for his care. Prissy's the same as ever, only a trifle more bitter. She claimed money for the child----" "Which isn't to be heard of, or thought of," said Mansfield, "but she's a good woman--I won't allow anything else to be said about her." "Well, let her keep her goodness, but let her keep away from us," said The Desmond. "I'm obliged to you, Mansfield. You have reared up that pretty bit thing and now she is ours, thank the Almighty. I wish I could pay _you_, not Prissy, but I haven't got it, Mansfield. I'm a poor man, bitter poor, but Fergus, who will be The Desmond, will see after the bit colleen when I am took. I can rest easy in my bed to-night thinking that she's in the same house, the pretty, sweet lamb. And she loves me, too, for that matter, Mansfield. Strange as it is to relate, she is wonderful took up with the old grand-dad." "Father, you must let me finish my story," said Fergus. "Things are not as smooth as you think." "What--why? What do you mean? Who dares to interfere between me and mine? I'll have him ducked in the horse-pond, that I will." "Father, you must take things easy," said Fergus. "You can't duck him in the horse-pond, for he's too far away." "Why, he's here, close by. I could lay me hand on him if I'd a mind," said The Desmond. "Bedad, and I will, too, if I'm further roused. He's coming holiness over me when he's an out-and-out scoundrel." "If you mean John Mansfield, father, he's the best man I know," said Fergus. "He's put up with Prissy and that's enough. Anyone who can do that must have the spirit of the Lord in him, say I." "She's a good woman," murmured Mansfield. He turned his head a little aside. This interview was trying him inexpressibly. "Now father, you listen," said Fergus. "Mansfield is the best of the best, and he'll give up the child whom he loved and reared and taught all she knows, for that matter. He'll give her up without asking a penny piece." "I will so," said Mansfield, "it is the will of the Almighty." "Then whyever are ye trying to frighten me?" said The Desmond, sinking back into his big grandfather chair. "It is because of this," said Fergus, "things are fairly smooth, but not as smooth as you think. Mansfield has nothing to do with it, so, for the Lord's sake, don't you turn on him. You forget that our Kathleen married a French nobleman." "A Frenchy!" exclaimed The Desmond. "I hate the whole lot of 'em."