It is probable that Gabriel was the only man from whom Mrs. Conroy could have received this humiliating proposition without interrupting him with a burst of indignation. Yet she only turned a rigid face towards the fire again with a hysterical laugh. "Why limit my stay to two or three months?" she said. "Well, it might be four," said Gabriel, simply--"it would give me and Olly a longer time to get things in shape." Mrs. Conroy rose and walked rigidly to her husband's side. "What," she said huskily, "what if I were to refuse?" Gabriel looked as if this suggestion would not have been startling or inconsistent as an abstract possibility in woman, but said nothing. "What," continued Mrs. Conroy, more rapidly and huskily, "what if I were to tell _you_ and that brat to go! What," she said, suddenly raising her voice to a thin high soprano, "what if I were to turn you both out of this house--_my_ house! off this land--_my_ land! Eh? eh? eh?" she almost screamed, emphasising each interrogatory with her thin hand on Gabriel's shoulder, in a desperate but impotent attempt to shake him. "Certingly, certingly," said Gabriel calmly. "But thar's somebody at the door, July," he continued quietly, as he rose slowly and walked into the hall. His quick ear had detected a knocking without, above the truculent pitch of Mrs. Conroy's voice. He threw open the door, and disclosed Olly and Sal standing upon the threshold. It is scarcely necessary to say that Sal was first to recover the use of that noble organ, the tongue. "With chills and ager in every breath--it's an hour if it's five minutes that we've stood here," she began, "pounding at that door. 'You're interrupting the young couple, Sal,' sez I, 'comin' yer this time o' night, breakin' in, so to speak, on the holiest confidences,' sez I; 'but it's business, and onless you hev thet to back you, Sarah Clark,' I sez, 'and you ain't a woman ez ever turned her back on thet or them, you ain't no call there.' But I was to fetch this child home, Mrs. Conroy," continued Sal, pushing her way into the little sitting-room, "and"---- She paused, for the room was vacant. Mrs. Conroy had disappeared. "I thought I heerd"----said Sal, completely taken aback. "It was only Gabe," said Olly, with the ready mendacity of swift feminine tact. "I told you so. Thank you, Sal, for seeing me home. Good night, Sal," and, with a dexterity that smote Gabriel into awesome and admiring silence, she absolutely led the breathless Sal to the door and closed it upon her before that astonished female could recover her speech. Then she returned quietly, took off her hat and shawl, and taking the unresisting hand of her brother, led him back to his former seat by the fire. Drawing a low stool in front of him, she proceeded to nestle between his knees--an old trick of hers--and once more taking his hand, stroked it between her brown fingers, looked up into his face, and said-- "Dear old Gabe!"