‘Not till I’ve told you why I came here, Mathew Kearney; for I’d beg you to understand it was no interest about yourself or your doings brought me. I came to tell you that I mean to be free about an old contract we once made--that I revoke it all. I was fool enough to believe that an alliance between our families would have made me entirely happy, and my nephew Gorman O’Shea was brought up to think the same. I have lived to know better, Mathew Kearney: I have lived to see that we don’t suit each other at all, and I have come here to declare to you formally that it’s all off. No nephew of mine shall come here for a wife. The heir to Shea’s Barn shan’t bring the mistress of it out of Kilgobbin Castle.’ ‘Trust _me_ for that, old lady,’ cried he, forgetting all his good manners in his violent passion. ‘You’ll be all the freer to catch a young aide-de-camp from the Castle,’ said she sneeringly; ‘or maybe, indeed, a young lord--a rank equal to your own.’ ‘Haven’t you said enough?’ screamed he, wild with rage. ‘No, nor half, or you wouldn’t be standing there, wringing your hands with passion and your hair bristling like a porcupine. You’d be at my feet, Mathew Kearney--ay, at my feet.’ ‘So I would, Miss Betty,’ chimed he in, with a malicious grin, ‘if I was only sure you’d be as cruel as the last time I knelt there. Oh dear! oh dear! and to think that I once wanted to marry that woman!’ ‘That you did! You’d have put your hand in the fire to win her.’ ‘By my conscience, I’d have put myself altogether there, if I had won her.’ ‘You understand now, sir,’ said she haughtily, ‘that there’s no more between us.’ ‘Thank God for the same!’ ejaculated he fervently. ‘And that no nephew of mine comes courting a daughter of yours?’ ‘For his own sake, he’d better not.’ ‘It’s for his own sake I intend it, Mathew Kearney. It’s of himself I’m thinking. And now, thanking you for the pleasant evening I’ve passed, and your charming society, I’ll take my leave.’ ‘I hope you’ll not rob us of your company till you take a dish of tea,’ said he, with well-feigned politeness. ‘It’s hard to tear one’s self away, Mr. Kearney; but it’s late already.’ ‘Couldn’t we induce you to stop the night, Miss Betty?’ asked he, in a tone of insinuation. ‘Well, at least you’ll let me ring to order your horse?’ ‘You may do that if it amuses you, Mathew Kearney; but, meanwhile, I’ll just do what I’ve always done in the same place--I’ll just go look for my own beast and see her saddled myself; and as Peter Gill is leaving you to-morrow, I’ll take him back with me to-night.’ ‘Is he going to you?’ cried he passionately. ‘He’s going to _me_, Mr. Kearney, with your leave, or without it, I don’t know which I like best.’ And with this she swept out of the room, while Kearney closed his eyes and lay back in his chair, stunned and almost stupefied. CHAPTER XXII A CONFIDENTIAL TALK