"I have always heard," said Katie, daintily consuming a delicate _entrée_, with her eyes upon her plate as if that was her sole interest, "that the Erradeen estates were all in such order that there was never anything for the heir to do." "You speak," said Walter, "as if they changed hands every year." "Oh, not that exactly; but I remember two; and I might have remembered others, for we have only been at Loch Houran since papa got so rich." "What a pleasant way of remembering dates!" "Do you think so, Lord Erradeen? Now I should think that to have been rich always, and your father before you, and never to have known any difference, would be so much more pleasant." "There may perhaps be something to be said on both sides," said Walter; "but I am no judge--for the news of my elevation, such as it is, came to me very suddenly, too suddenly to be agreeable, without any warning." Katie reconsidered her decision in the matter of Lord Erradeen; perhaps though he knew nobody, he might not be quite unworthy cultivation, and besides, she had finished her _entrée_. She said, "Didn't you know?" turning to him again her once-averted eyes. "I had not the faintest idea; it came upon me like a thunderbolt," he said. "You perceive that you must treat me with a little indulgence in respect to dukes, &c.--even if I had any taste for society, which I haven't," he added, with a touch of bitterness in his tone. "Oh," said Katie, looking at him much more kindly; then she bent towards him with quite unexpected familiarity, and said, lowering her voice, but in the most distinct whisper, "And where then did you pick up that odious man?" Walter could not but laugh as he looked across the table at the unconscious object of this attack. "I observe that ladies never like him," he said; "at home it is the same." "Oh, I should think so," cried Katie, "everybody thought it was such a pity that Lord Erradeen took him up--and then to see him with you! Oona Forrester would be very sorry," Katie added after a pause. "Miss Forrester!" Walter felt himself colour high with pleasure at the sound of this name, then feeling this a sort of self-betrayal, coloured yet more. "You know her?" Katie turned round upon him with a mixture of amusement and disdain. "Know her! is there any one on the loch, or near it, that doesn't know her?" she said. "I beg your pardon," cried Walter. "I forgot for the moment." Then he too retired within himself for so long a time that it was Katie's turn to be affronted. He devoted himself to his dinner too, but he did not eat. At last "Why should she be sorry?" he asked curtly as if there had been no pause. "How can I tell you now while he sits there?" said Katie, lowering her voice; "some other time perhaps--most likely you will call in the day-time, in the morning, now that we have made your acquaintance." "If you will permit me," Walter said.