“Nothing to hope from,” said Darcy, sorrowfully. “Daly has seen Hickman's solicitors, and the matter is as I expected: Gleeson did not pay the bond debt; his journey to Kildare was, probably, undertaken to gain time until the moment of the American ship's sailing. He must have meditated this step for a considerable time, for it now appears that his losses in South America occurred several years back, though carefully screened from public knowledge. The man was a cold, calculating scoundrel, who practised peculation systematically and slowly; his resolve to escape was not a sudden notion,--these are Bagenal Daly's impressions at least, and I begin to feel their force myself.” “Does Daly offer any suggestion for our guidance, or say how we should act?” said Lionel, far more eager to meet the present than speculate on either the past or the future. “Yes; he gives us a choice of counsels, honestly confessing that his own advice meets little support or sympathy with the lawyers. It is to hold forcible possession of the abbey, to leave Hickman to his remedy by law, and to defy him when he has even got a verdict; he enumerates very circumstantially all our means of defence, and exhibits a very hopeful array of lawless probabilities in our favor. But this is a counsel I would never follow; it would not become one who has in a long life endeavored to set the example among the people of obedience and observance to law, to obliterate by one act of rashness and folly the whole force of his teaching. No, Lionel, we are cleanhanded on this score, and if the lesson, be a heavy one for ourselves, let it not be profitless for our poor neighbors. This is your own feeling too, my boy, I'm certain.” Lionel bit his lip, and his cheek grew scarlet; when, after a pause, he said, “And the other plan, what is that?” “The renewed offer of his cottage on the northern coast, a lonely and secluded spot, where we can remain at least until we determine on something better.” “Perhaps that may be a wiser course,” muttered the youth, half aloud; “my mother and Helen are to be thought of first. And yet, father, I. cannot help thinking Daly's first counsel has something in it.” “Something in it! ay, Lionel, that it has,--the whole story of our country's misery and degradation. The owner of the soil has diffused little else among the people than the licentious terror of his own unbridled passion; he has taught lawless outrage, when he should have inculcated obedience and submission. The corruption of our people has come from above downwards; the heavy retribution will come one day; and when the vices of the peasant shall ascend to the master, the social ruin will be complete. To this dreadful consummation let us lend no aid. No, no, Lionel, sorrow may be lessened by time; but remorse is undying and eternal.”