r nephew, St. Lawrence of that ilk, were spending a long and agreeable Sunday afternoon with their relativ

in the Mount Music drawing-room, and was cross-examining Miss Coppinger on her proposed arrangements for herself and her nephew, while he drank his tea

alising when they are becoming pleasures of memory, had been withheld from him. Dick was of the happy temperament that believes in the exclusive immortality of his own charms, and he was now

Larry's religion, and the combative fervour of Majo

mean to tell me that the boy has to go to Mass with the servants-on the cook's lap, I suppose-on the outside car! Good H

genuineness of whose conversion to his wife's Chu

ck!" said L

r lips tightly with an a

gion involved, in this country-though it's probably quite different in India. In any case, the thin

lex of human beings would suggest a much-travelled portmanteau, covered with tags and shreds from hotels and railways. Frederica shall not be labelled; let it suffice to say that she was tall and thin, and nearer fifty than forty (which was a far greater age thirty years ago than it is now), and that she had a sense of fair play that was

a defiant eye on her cousin, "and as soon as we are a little more settled down I

parish-he mayn't be a bad sort for all I know-I'm bound to say he's got a black-muzzled look about him, but we might go farther and fare wors

e," said Miss Coppinger repressi

escending amusement that he felt to be the meed of female

trousers, "and you mightn't find Father Sweeny so anxious to repeat the dose-and that mightn't be any harm ei

ight halt in his leisurely stride, down the long drawing-room, trolling in the

cCann was a b

a rogue, a bi

feet high, he'd

t brogue, an i

ture generations may not know that look, but in the faces of these women, born in the earlier half of the nineteenth century, there was something of awe, and of in

well as I. Also that Larry is a Roman Catholic, and i

oleration was inconspicuous. She ran straight herself, and though she could forgive deviations on the part of others, she could not forget them. She was entirely and implacably Protestant, a typical member of that Church that expects friendship from its votaries, but leaves their course of action to their own

Lady Isabel, in her gentle, musical voice, that suggested something between the

ich is perfectly impracticable! I entirely agree with him, but, unfortunately, I know that it is our duty to send him to one of those-" Mi

ave always heard that Monkshurst was a charming school, and dear Larry will be so well

ed. "The end of it is that I shall endeavour to do my duty-which is, apparently, to do everything that I most entirely disapprove of-and that on

engaging the attention of her ward, and of his entertainers at the school-room tea-table. This was no less a thing th

rly enough, into the heart of their affection and esteem. He was now the originator of this revolutionary sch

it up into two bands, we can do nothing much, but the l

of the Elder Statesmen, unsympathetically. Li

found in the library. I don't expect I'd have thought of it myself--" Larry's transparent sky-blue eyes sought Ri

rd, without enthusiasm

ly much about poetry," abetted

d said, neutrally, that

e rabbit, recently born dead, made no comment. Only Christian, her small hands clenc

n, La

y we

nd's treated her. It sort of-sort of put the notion into my head that we might start some sort of a Fenian band, and t

his favourite invocation in his surp

with her! Penal laws! Persecution! Saxon despots grinding their heels into a down-trodden people! Revolut

that's not so awfully young. Anyway, everything's got to have a beginning--" He glowed upon his audience of six

and Larry, like most of his class, required but little encouragement. He produced a large book, o

choose--" began the Revolutionary with a shade of nervousness. Then he aga

think, but I think this is a jolly good one," he said with a renewal of defiance, and

d they dare, to sl

oison, him they feare

eir hearts! May thei

living death, who

d not die-we were s

utmost need to Cro

pherd, when the sno

leave us, Owen?

ad finished it, there was a pause. The audience was impressed, even though they had no intention of admitting the fact. Christian gave a tremen

, and awfully good poetry, I'm sure-but how on earth

ith, thoughtfully, "unles

up," woke to life; even Ri

said briskly: "bags I Cromwell! Larr

rd from the sphere of romance

elf together; "I only wanted to give you a kind of noti

Christian; "let's a

on the plastic mind, or if the mind is to assert itself and stamp on the book, is a detail that admits less easily of dogmatism. The Companionage of Finn remained in being for but two periods of holiday. Before the boys had returned to

wake at nights, stringing rhymes in emulation of their shouts of fury, or picturing rebellions, of which he was to be the leader and hero. Larry's enthusiasms were wont to devour not him only, but also his friends. It is impossible to escape from the conclusion that the career of the Companionage of Finn was abbreviated by Larry's determination to recite to the Companions of the Order, in season and out of season, the poems by which, during his first Irish summer, he was possessed. There cam

could not ignore their power. The intensity of their hatred, and of their sincerity, made itself fe