[Frontispiece: "ESTHER WAS SITTING AT OONA'S FEET GAZING INTO THE HEART OF THE FIRE."] THE HANDSOME BRANDONS BY KATHARINE TYNAN Author of "The Dear Irish Girl" "She Walks in Beauty" "Oh, what a Plague is Love!" &c. _WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS BY GERTRUDE DEMAIN HAMMOND, R.I._ CHICAGO A. C. M'CLURG & CO 1901 CONTENTS. CHAP. I. Castle Brandon and Castle Angry II. We Brandons III. Annagassan Races IV. I Pay the Reckoning V. Freda VI. "How Oft Has the Banshee Cried?" VII. A True Word spoken in Jest VIII. The Stranger within the Gate IX. An Impossible Friendship X. From the Night and the Storm XI. A Fairy Godmother XII. A Secret Room XIII. Cinderella XIV. The Romaunt of the Rose XV. Pierce goes on a Journey XVI. Honey among the Roses XVII. The Master of Rose Hill XVIII. The Story of a Sorrow XIX. I Visit the Great World XX. Freda's Mystery XXI. Freda Breaks Silence XXII. Books and Soldiers XXIII. Esther XXIV. Sir Rupert XXV. "Will ye no come back again?" XXVI. The Ugly Duckling XXVII. The Web of the Spider XXVIII. Out of the Web XXIX. The Last of Castle Angry XXX. Wedding-bells XXXI. Once and For Ever XXXII. The Restoration of Brandon ILLUSTRATIONS. "Esther was sitting at Oona's feet gazing into the heart of the fire" ... _Frontis._ "They used to walk together a good deal in the woods" "My poor little girl, I am afraid you are hurt" "What a figure of a man your grandfather was! I might have been your grandmother!" "Garnets!" Said the old lady, peering closely. "They are no garnets" "Now, look here," he said gruffly, "are you a classical housemaid?" "Freda came back, proudly leading her son" "Lady O'Brien stood up now and shook an angry head at him" "He was as disagreeable as most gardeners about cutting his flowers" "He seen the stone that had hit him, an' a bit of paper wrapped around it" "The ravine was full of the bog, moving, a great black sluggish mass" "I can only say, Miss Brandon, that I loved the lad like a son" THE HANDSOME BRANDONS. CHAPTER I CASTLE BRANDON AND CASTLE ANGRY. I don't know whether Brandon Mountain was called from us or we from the mountain. The country people say that there were Brandons in the land before the mountains were made. Anyhow the mountains are likely to be there when there are no Brandons, so far as I can see. For how is a family to last when it has come to living on nothing, and the number of the family all told nine,--they being nearly all healthy and hungry people? At least there were nine before Pierce and Freda left us, and now there are seven. I foresee that one of these days, in spite of our vows to the contrary, we shall have to sell Brandon after all.