It was only too clear that The O’Mahony did see. He had frowned at the first adumbration of the idea. He pulled his hand away now, and pushed the young man from him. “No, you don’t!” he cried, angrily. “No, sirree! You can’t make any such bargain as that with _me!_ Why--I’d ’a’ thought you’d ’a’ known me better! _Me_, going into a deal, with little Katie to be traded off? Why, man, you’re a fool!” The O’Mahony turned on his heel contemptuously and strode up and down the room, with indignant sniffs at every step. All at once he stopped short. “Yes,” he said, as if in answer to an argument with himself, “I’ll tell you to get out of this! You can go and do what you like--just whatever you may please--but I’m boss here yet, at all events, and I don’t want anybody around me who could propose that sort of thing. _Me_ make Kate marry you in order to feather my own nest! There’s the door, young man!” Bernard looked obdurately past the outstretched forefinger into the other’s face. “Who said anything about your _making_ her marry me?” he demanded. “And who talked about a deal? Why, look here, colonel”--the random title caught the ear of neither speaker nor impatient listener--“look at it this way: They all love you here in Muirisc; they’re just boiling over with joy because they’ve got you here. That sort of thing doesn’t happen so often between landlords and tenants that one can afford to bust it up when it does occur. And I--well--a man would be a brute to have tried to come between you and these people. Well, then, it’s just the same with me and Katie. We love each other--we are glad when we’re together; we’re unhappy when we’re apart. And so I say in this case as I said in the other, a mane between you and these people. Well, then, it’s just the same with me and Katie. We love each other--we are glad when we’re together; we’re unhappy when we’re apart. And so I say in this case as I said in the other, a man would be a brute--” “Do you mean to tell me--” The O’Mahony broke in, and then was himself cut short. “Yes, I _do_ mean to tell you,” interrupted Bernard; “and, what’s more, she means to tell you, too, if you put on your hat and walk over to the convent.” Noting the other’s puzzled glance, he hastened on to explain: “I rowed over to your sloop, or ship, or whatever you call it, after I left you this morning, and I brought her and O’Daly back with me on purpose _to_ tell you.” Before The O’Mahony had mastered this confusing piece of information, much less prepared verbal comment upon it, the door was thrust open; and, ushered in, as it were, by the sharply resounding clamor of the crowd outside, the burly figure of Jerry Higgins appeared.