‘Weren’t they proud of it? Won’t they tell how the young lord shared their meal with them?’ ‘I don’t think they are as cordial as they used to be, Kate; they did not talk so openly, nor seem at their ease, as I once knew them. And they did one thing, significant enough in its way, that I did not like. They quoted the county newspaper twice or thrice when we talked of the land.’ ‘I am aware of that, Dick; they have got other counsellors than their landlords now,’ said she mournfully, ‘and it is our own fault if they have.’ ‘What, are you turning Nationalist, Kitty?’ said he, laughing. ‘I was always a Nationalist in one sense,’ said she, ‘and mean to continue so; but let us not get upon this theme. Do you know that Peter Gill has left us?’ ‘What, for America?’ ‘No; for “O’Shea’s Barn.” Miss Betty has taken him. She came here to-day to “have it out” with papa, as she said; and she has kept her word. Indeed, not alone with him, but with all of us--even Nina did not escape.’ ‘Insufferable old woman. What did she dare to say to Nina?’ ‘She got off the cheapest of us all, Dick,’ said she, laughing. ‘It was only some stupid remark she made her about looking like a boy, or being dressed like a rope-dancer. A small civility of this sort was her share of the general attention.’ ‘And how did Nina take the insolence?’ ‘With great good-temper, or good-breeding. I don’t know exactly which covered the indifference she displayed, till Miss Betty, when taking her leave, renewed the impertinence in the hall, by saying something about the triumphant success such a costume would achieve in the circus, when Nina curtsied, and said: “I am charmed to hear you say so, madam, and shall wear it for my benefit; and if I could only secure the appearance of yourself and your little groom, my triumph would be, indeed, complete.” I did not dare to wait for more, but hurried out to affect to busy myself with the saddle, and pretend that it was not tightly girthed.’ ‘I’d have given twenty pounds, if I had it, to have seen the old woman’s face. No one ever ventured before to pay her back with her own money.’ ‘But I give you such a wrong version of it, Dick. I only convey the coarseness of the rejoinder, and I can give you no idea of the ineffable grace and delicacy which made her words sound like a humble apology. Her eyelids drooped as she curtsied, and when she looked up again, in a way that seemed humility itself, to have reproved her would have appeared downright cruelty.’ ‘She is a finished coquette,’ said he bitterly; ‘a finished coquette.’ Kate made no answer, though he evidently expected one; and after waiting a while, he went on: ‘Not but her high accomplishments are clean thrown away in such a place as this, and amongst such people. What chance of fitting exercise have they with my father or myself? Or is it on Joe Atlee she would try the range of her artillery?’ ‘Not so very impossible this, after all,’ muttered Kate quietly.