"It was Miss Lynch I asked for," said Daly, still looking to the girl for an answer.

"Do as I bid you, you born ideot, and don't stand gaping there,"

shouted Martin to the girl, who immediately ran off towards the shop.

"I might as well warn you, Mr Kelly, that, if Miss Lynch is denied to me, the fact of her being so denied will be a very sthrong proof against you and your family. In fact, it amounts to an illegal detention of her person, in the eye of the law." Daly said this in a very low voice, almost a whisper.

"Faith, the law must have quare eyes, av' it makes anything wrong with a young lady being asked the question whether or no she wishes to see an attorney, at eleven in the morning."

"An attorney!" whispered Meg to Jane and Anty at the top of the stairs.

"Heaven and 'arth," said poor Anty, shaking and shivering--"what's going to be the matter now?"

"It's young Daly," said Jane, stretching forward and peeping clown the stairs: "I can see the curl of his whiskers."

By this time the news had reached Mrs Kelly, in the shop, "that a sthrange gentleman war axing for Miss Anty, but that she warn't to be shown to him on no account;" so the widow dropped her tobacco knife, flung off her dirty ap.r.o.n, and, having summoned Jane and Meg to attend to the mercantile affairs of the establishment--turned into the inn, and met Mr Daly and her son still standing at the bottom of the stairs.

The widow curtsied ceremoniously, and wished Mr. Daly good morning, and he was equally civil in his salutation.

"Mr Daly's going to have us all before the a.s.sizes, mother. We'll never get off without the treadmill, any way: it's well av' the whole kit of us don't have to go over the wather at the queen's expense."

"The Lord be good to us;" said the widow, crossing herself. What's the matter, Mr Daly?"

"Your son's joking, ma'am. I was only asking to see Miss Lynch, on business."

"Step upstairs, mother, into the big parlour, and don't let's be standing talking here where all the world can hear us."

"And wilcome, for me, I'm shure"--said the widow, stroking down the front of her dress with the palms of her hands, as she walked upstairs--"and wilcome too for me I'm very shure. I've said or done nothing as I wish to consail, Mr Daly. Will you be plazed to take a chair?" and the widow sat down herself on a chair in the middle of the room, with her hands folded over each other in her lap, as if she was preparing to answer questions from that time to a very late hour in the evening.

"And now, Mr Daly--av' you've anything to say to a poor widdy like me, I'm ready."

"My chief object in calling, Mrs Kelly, was to see Miss Lynch. Would you oblige me by letting Miss Lynch know that I'm waiting to see her on business."

"Maybe it's a message from her brother, Mr Daly?" said Mrs Kelly.

"You had better go in to Miss Lynch, mother," said Martin, "and ask her av' it's pleasing to her to see Mr Daly. She can see him, in course, av' she likes."

"I don't see what good 'll come of her seeing him," rejoined the widow.

"With great respect to you, Mr Daly, and not maning to say a word agin you, I don't see how Anty Lynch 'll be the betther for seeing ere an attorney in the counthry."

"I don't want to frighten you, ma'am," said Daly; "but I can a.s.sure you, you will put yourself in a very awkward position if you refuse to allow me to see Miss Lynch."

"Ah, mother!" said Martin, "don't have a word to say in the matther at all, one way or the other. Just tell Anty Mr Daly wishes to see her--let her come or not, just as she chooses. What's she afeard of, that she shouldn't hear what anyone has to say to her?"

The widow seemed to be in great doubt and perplexity, and continued whispering with Martin for some time, during which Daly remained standing with his back to the fire. At length Martin said, "Av' you've got another of them notices to give my mother, Mr Daly, why don't you do it?"

"Why, to tell you the thruth," answered the attorney, "I don't want to throuble your mother unless it's absolutely necessary; and although I have the notice ready in my pocket, if I could see Miss Lynch, I might be spared the disagreeable job of serving it on her."

"The Holy Virgin save us!" said the widow; "an' what notice is it at all, you're going to serve on a poor lone woman like me?"

"Be said by me, mother, and fetch Anty in here. Mr Daly won't expect, I suppose, but what you should stay and hear what it is he has to say?"

"Both you and your mother are welcome to hear all that I have to say to the lady," said Daly; for he felt that it would be impossible for him to see Anty alone.

The widow unwillingly got up to fetch her guest. When she got to the door, she turned round, and said, "And is there a notice, as you calls it, to be sarved on Miss Lynch?"

"Not a line, Mrs Kelly; not a line, on my honour. I only want her to hear a few words that I'm commissioned by her brother to say to her."

"And you're not going to give her any paper--nor nothing of that sort at all?"

"Not a word, Mrs Kelly."

"Ah, mother," said Martin, "Mr Daly couldn't hurt her, av' he war wishing, and he's not. Go and bring her in."

The widow went out, and in a few minutes returned, bringing Anty with her, trembling from head to foot. The poor young woman had not exactly heard what had pa.s.sed between the attorney and the mother and her son, but she knew very well that his visit had reference to her, and that it was in some way connected with her brother. She had, therefore, been in a great state of alarm since Meg and Jane had left her alone. When Mrs Kelly came into the little room where she was sitting, and told her that Mr Daly had come to Dunmore on purpose to see her, her first impulse was to declare that she wouldn't go to him; and had she done so, the widow would not have pressed her. But she hesitated, for she didn't like to refuse to do anything which her friend asked her; and when Mrs Kelly said, "Martin says as how the man can't hurt you, Anty, so you'd betther jist hear what it is he has to say," she felt that she had no loophole of escape, and got up to comply.

"But mind, Anty," whispered the cautious widow, as her hand was on the parlour door, "becase this Daly is wanting to speak to you, that's no rason you should be wanting to spake to him; so, if you'll be said by me, you'll jist hould your tongue, and let him say on."

Fully determined to comply with this prudent advice, Anty followed the old woman, and, curtseying at Daly without looking at him, sat herself down in the middle of the old sofa, with her hands crossed before her.

"Anty," said Martin, making great haste to speak, before Daly could commence, and then checking himself as he remembered that he shouldn't have ventured on the familiarity of calling her by her Christian name in Daly's presence--"Miss Lynch, I mane--as Mr Daly here has come all the way from Tuam on purpose to spake to you, it wouldn't perhaps be manners in you to let him go back without hearing him. But remember, whatever your brother says, or whatever Mr Daly says for him--and it's all--one you're still your own mistress, free to act and to spake, to come and to go; and that neither the one nor the other can hurt you, or mother, or me, nor anybody belonging to us."

"G.o.d knows," said Daly, "I want to have no hand in hurting any of you; but, to tell the truth, Martin, it would be well for Miss Lynch to have a better adviser than you or she may get herself, and, what she'll think more of, she'll get her friends--maning you, Mrs Kelly, and your family--into a heap of throubles."

"Oh, G.o.d forbid, thin!" exclaimed Anty.

"Niver mind us, Mr Daly," said the widow. "The Kellys was always able to hould their own; thanks be to glory."

"Well, I've said my say, Mr Daly," said Martin, "and now do you say your'n: as for throubles, we've all enough of thim; but your own must have been bad, when you undhertook this sort of job for Barry Lynch."

"Mind yourself, Martin, as I told you before, and you'll about have enough to do.--Miss Lynch, I've been instructed by your brother to draw up an indictment against Mrs Kelly and Mr Kelly, charging them with conspiracy to get possession of your fortune."

"A what!" shouted the widow, jumping up from her chair--"to rob Anty Lynch of her fortune! I'd have you to know, Mr Daly, I wouldn't demane myself to rob the best gentleman in Connaught, let alone a poor unprotected young woman, whom I've--"

"Whist, mother--go asy," said Martin. "I tould you that that was what war in the paper he gave me; he'll give you another, telling you all about it just this minute."

"Well, the born ruffian! Does he dare to accuse me of wishing to rob his sister! Now, Mr Daly, av' the blessed thruth is in you this minute, don't your own heart know who it is, is most likely to rob Anty Lynch?--Isn't it Barry Lynch himself is thrying to rob his own sisther this minute? ay, and he'd murdher her too, only the heart within him isn't sthrong enough."

"Ah, mother! don't be saying such things," said Martin; "what business is that of our'n? Let Barry send what messages he plazes; I tell you it's all moonshine; he can't hurt the hair of your head, nor Anty's neither. Go asy, and let Mr Daly say what he has to say, and have done with it."

"It's asy to say 'go asy'--but who's to sit still and be tould sich things as that? Rob Anty Lynch indeed!"

"If you'll let me finish what I have to say, Mrs Kelly, I think you'll find it betther for the whole of us," said Daly.

"Go on thin, and be quick with it; but don't talk to dacent people about robbers any more. Robbers indeed! they're not far to fitch; and black robbers too, glory be to G.o.d."

"Your brother, Miss Lynch, is determined to bring this matter before a jury at the a.s.sizes, for the sake of protecting you and your property."

"Protecthing Anty Lynch!--is it Barry? The Holy Virgin defind her from sich prothection! a broken head the first moment the dhrink makes his heart sthrong enough to sthrike her!"