[Frontispiece: "THERE'S THIM THAT'LL NOT FORGIT" _Page_ 182] A Little Irish Girl BY J. M. CALLWELL Author of "A Champion of the Faith" "Little Curiosity" "The Squire's Grandson" &c. BLACKIE & SON LIMITED LONDON AND GLASGOW Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son, Ltd., Glasgow CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE MISS CLARKSONS' EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT FOR YOUNG LADIES II. COUSIN ANSEY'S LEGACY III. NORAH'S FREAK IV. WITHIN SOUND OF THE SEA V. ENGLISH IDEAS AND IRISH WAYS VI. COUSINS VII. MOYROSS ABBEY VIII. BALLINTAGGART CAVE IX. THE GHOST IN THE MONK'S WALK X. CAPTAIN LESTER, R.M. XI. ON DRINANE HEAD XII. DISCOMFITED XIII. MALACHY'S ORATION XIV. MR. O'BRIEN SEES A VISION OF THE PAST XV. IT WAS ALL NORAH'S IDEA XVI. PEACE AND HARMONY A LITTLE IRISH GIRL CHAPTER I THE MISS CLARKSONS' EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT FOR YOUNG LADIES A goodly number of years ago there stood in one of the northern suburbs of London a large, old-fashioned red-brick house. In former days, somewhere about the middle of the last century, it had been a stately family mansion. A broad flight of stone steps led up to the hall-door, and in the iron railings on either side there still remained the extinguishers with which the linkboys had been wont to put their torches out, after escorting some fashionable lady home in her sedan-chair from a gay rout or assembly. Within doors, too, the stone-flagged hall, the wide staircase, and the lofty rooms with their carved mantel-pieces and richly-decorated ceilings, bore witness to the ancient glories of Treherne House. Those glories, however, had long passed away. The original owners, the Trehernes, had sold it many years before, when fashionable people moved to other parts of London; and though the old house retained its high-sounding name, it had known many vicissitudes and changed hands many times since then. For some dozen years or so it had been owned by three middle-aged sisters, the Miss Clarksons, the principals of a large and flourishing school, or--to quote the inscription on the huge brass plate affixed to the hall-door--of an educational establishment for young ladies. If anyone had chanced to stand in the entrance-hall of Treherne House upon a certain sunny spring morning, he could not have failed to perceive that this work of education was being carried on even more vigorously than usual. A busy hum of voices pervaded the whole house, and burst forth more loudly every now and again with the opening of a class-room door, while somewhere far aloft indefatigable fingers raced up and down the piano over sharps and flats in persevering efforts to master a difficult passage. Both pupils and teachers, indeed, were working at full pressure, for the Easter holidays were barely three weeks off, and the examinations which marked the conclusion of each school-term were to begin the following week.