“I should like excessively to know the secret of this interest in my behalf,” said Jack, as he arose and slowly walked the room. “It is not, unquestionably, from any high estimate of my capacity; as little is it anything bordering on regard; and yet,” added he, after a pause, “there are moments when I half fancy she could care for me,--at least I know well that I could for _her_, Confound it!” cried he, passionately, “what a terrible barrier social station throws up! If she were even some country squire's daughter,--portionless as she is,--the notion would not be so absurd; but 'the governess!' and 'the steward!' what frightful figures to conjure up. No, no; that's impossible. One might do such a folly by retiring from the world forever, but that would be exactly to defeat the whole object of such a match. She is essentially intended for 'the world;' every gift and grace she possesses are such as only have their fitting exercise where the game of life is played by the highest, and for the heaviest stakes! But it is not to be thought of!” “Have I found you at last?” cried Repton, entering the room. “They say the writ will be here on Monday, so that we 've not an hour to lose. Let us drive over to Oughterard at once, see the editor of the 'Intelligence,' call on Priest Rafferty, and that other fellow--the father of our young friend here.” “Mr. Nelligan,” said Jack. “But I can't well visit _him_--there have been some rather unpleasant passages between us.” “Ah! you told me something about it. He wanted you to fill a bail-bond, or do something or other, rather than shoot _me_. An unreasonable old rascal! Never mind; we shall come before him now in another character, and you 'll see that he'll be more tractable.” “The matter is graver than this,” said Jack, musingly; “and our difference is serious enough to make intercourse impossible.” “You shall tell me all about it as we drive along,--that is, if it be brief and easy to follow, for my head is so full of election matters I don't desire a new element of complication. Step in now, and let us away.” And with this he hurried Massingbred to the door, where a pony-phaeton was in waiting for them. Once on the road, Repton changed the conversation from the domain of politics, and talked entirely of the host and his family. There was a sort of constitutional frankness and familiarity about the old lawyer which all the astute habits and instincts of his profession had never mastered. Like a great many acute men, his passion for shrewd observation and keen remark overbore the prudent reserve that belongs to less animated talkers, and so he now scrupled not to dis-cuss Martin and his affairs to one who but a few days back had been a complete stranger amongst them. At first Jack heard him without much interest, but, as he continued, the subject attracted all his attention, full as it was of views of life and the world perfectly new and strange to him.