"Well, glory be to Them above for that same parvarsity of the boy, for the day before yesterday him an' the Widdy Byrne's innocent son, that had no more sinse but to follow him, was paddlin' in the moat, enjoyin' themselves all the more because they expected every minit 'ud be their last, when Johnny was struck on the poll by a nate lump of a stone. 'Murder!' says he, 'they're stonin' me!' for he had no more thought but that it was Gaskin's tricks. Then no more stones came, an' when he had felt his poll to make sure there wasn't a crack in it, he seen the stone that had hit him starin' him in the face, an' a bit of paper wrapped around it. [Illustration: "HE SEEN THE STONE THAT HAD HIT HIM, AN' A BIT OF PAPER WRAPPED AROUND IT."] "Johnny's no scholar, for he's always mitchin' from school, but he had the sinse to put the thing in his pocket an' bring it home to me, though I'd promised him a lambastin' he'd never forgit the first time he went near Castle Angry. "You might have knocked me down with a straw when I saw the bit of a letter was addressed to meself. An' there it was from my beautiful lamb that I'd nursed, saying that he was too ill to get out o' that unlucky ould house by himself, an' had no one to help him but his Maggie. An' if I'd come to-day he'd be able to open the door to us, for Sir Rupert an' Gaskin were to be off on some divilmint. 'Bring a carriage for me,' says he, 'for I'm a-past walking.'" The good woman paused for breath, and her husband took up the tale with a broad grin. "I sez to her that it was a case of housebreakin', an' 'ud bring us widin the law. 'If you're afeard, Mike O'Flaherty,' she sez, 'say so, an' I goes alone.' 'Is it me to be afeard of anything, woman,' says I, 'an' I after marryin' you?" He looked at his partner's comely face with a jovial pride, pleasant to witness. "Maggie wanted me not to come," said Esther, "but I said I must. I should go wild not knowing what was happening." "'Twas common prudence, Miss," said Mrs. O'Flaherty. "What 'ud people say if they heard that Miss Brandon was housebreakin' and kidnappin' at Castle Angry?" "That was very sensible of you, Mrs. O'Flaherty," I said. "You'll be guided by your own sister now, Miss Essie," said the good woman, nodding severely at Esther. "I only satisfied Maggie's scruples by promising that you would come to give the sanction of the family, by your presence, to my unconventional act." I looked at Esther with amazement. Her eyes were shining and her cheeks vividly flushed. Her hair was crisp about her brow, crisper for the damp air, which was deliciously sweet. She walked with a swinging step, so that I had some trouble in keeping up with her. Was this the languid Esther of the last three months, about whom I had often a dark unexpressed fear lest she should be going the way that Pierce went? "I am glad you let her come, Mrs. O'Flaherty," I said soberly. "It is hard to sit at home doing nothing."