“I am sorry my people were--were--a bit rough, and I hope you won’t tell my aunt more than you can possibly help. I know my mother has been bothered lately with several things, and I daresay my aunt would be vexed if she heard that she had not----well, you know what I mean: ignorance is bliss.” “Young man, you never said a truer word!” declared Mrs. Aron, with unexpected emphasis. As she spoke she rose and walked over to the glass above the chimney-piece, leaving the money on the table. Ulick sat for a moment buried in thought; then he turned about to look for his cap. It was on the floor. He stooped for it, and when he raised his head Mrs. Aron had disappeared. In her place stood a tall, rather elegant woman with a slight figure and quantities of grey hair. Ulick Doran started to his feet, and stared at the lady in stupefied silence. The stranger was the first to speak. “Come here and give me a kiss, Ulick; I am your aunt Nora.” “But why--and where?” he stammered, and held back. “Oh, ever so many whys! As to where? Here is Mrs. Aron--my own name backwards;” and she lifted the wadded cloak from the sofa, then held up the bonnet and front. “It was a capital disguise, was it not?” “Surely quite unnecessary--and why?” “That is the second time you have asked _why_? Sit down there, and you shall hear all there is to it. I wished to see your mother, your brother, and yourself--what you called ‘unknownst’--and find out what you were like.” “And, by Jove, you have been most unfortunately successful!” “Not altogether unfortunate----” “But I don’t think it was fair, Aunt Nora,” he protested; “I don’t think it was playing the game!” “Well, there we differ. I am a rich woman. Tom agreed that our money is to go to the Dorans, my brother’s children, and I naturally wanted to discover what sort of people the Dorans were? As a girl, I was wild, and fond of fun and dancing; but my father, who was a very stern old man, kept me all but locked up. He had forgotten his own youth, poor man, and even his middle age. He married, you know, late in life. I was full of spirits, and daring, and once I got out and dressed up in Katty Foley’s clothes and went to a wake as her cousin, a strange young woman from Dublin. I was glad to see Katty. That’s a nice bright girl of hers; she has some notions, and is real well-looking. Well, to go on with my story, I had a great success. I could take off the brogue to the life, and at the wake I met Tom, and that was the beginning of the end.” “But did you never go out at all, in your own rank of life--meet people?”