"My dear Mistress Joan," cried he, shaking her cordially by both hands, "how glad I am to see you again! It was but this very moment I was inquiring how I could go over and pay you a visit."

Hurriedly as these words were uttered, and in all the apparent fervor of hearty sincerity, they were accompanied by a short glance at Kate Henderson, who was about to leave the room, that plainly said, "Remain where you are, there is no mystery here."

"I thank yer honer kindly," said Joan Landy, "but it's no good coming, he is n't there."

"Not there!--how and why is that?"

"Sure _you_ ought to know better than me," said she, fixing her large eyes full upon him. "Ye left the house together, and _he_ never came back since."

"Oh, perhaps I can guess," said Jack, pausing for a moment to reflect.

"He might have deemed it safer to keep out of the way for a day or two."

"It's no good deceivin' me, sir," said she, rising from her seat; "tell me the whole truth. Where is he?"

"That is really more than I can say, my dear Mistress Joan. We parted in Oughterard."

"And you never saw him after?"

"Never, I a.s.sure you."

"And you never tried to see him?--you never asked what became of him?"

"I concluded, indeed I was certain, that he returned home," said Jack, but not without some confusion.

"Ay, that was enough for you," said she, angrily. "If you were a poor labor in' man, you 'd not desert him that had you under his roof and gave you the best he had; but because ye 're a gentleman--"

"It is precisely for that reason I can't suffer you to think so meanly of me," cried Jack. "Now just hear me for one moment, and you'll see how unjust you've been." And, drawing his chair closer to hers, he narrated in a low and whispering voice the few events of their morning at Oughterard, and read for her the short note Magennis had written to him.

"And is that all?" exclaimed Joan, when he concluded.

"All, upon my honor!" said he, solemnly.

"Oh, then, wirra! wirra!" said she, wringing her hands sorrowfully, "why did I come here?--why did n't I bear it all patient? But sure my heart was bursting, and I could not rest nor sleep, thinking of what happened to him! Oh, yer honer knows well what he is to _me!_" And she covered her face with her hands.

"You have done nothing wrong in coming here," said Jack, consolingly.

"Not if he never hears of it," said she, in a voice tremulous with fear.

"That he need never do," rejoined Jack; "though I cannot see why he should object to it. But come, Mrs. Joan, don't let this fret you; here's a young lady will tell you, as I have, that n.o.body could possibly blame your natural anxiety."

"What would a young lady know about a poor creature like _me?_"

exclaimed Joan, dejectedly. "Sure, from the day she's born, she never felt what it was to be all alone and friendless!"

"You little guess to whom you say that," said Kate, turning round and gazing on her calmly; "but if the balance were struck this minute, take my word for it, you 'd have the better share of fortune."

Jack Ma.s.singbred's cheek quivered slightly as he heard these words, and his eyes were bent upon the speaker with an intense meaning. Kate, however, turned haughtily away from the gaze, and coldly reminded him that Mrs. Joan should have some refreshment after her long walk.

"No, miss,--no, yer honer; many thanks for the same," said Joan, drawing her cloak around her. "I couldn't eat a bit; my heart's heavy inside me.

I 'll go back now."

Kate tried to persuade her to take something, or, at least, to rest a little longer; but she was resolute, and eager to return.

"Shall we bear you company part of the way, then?" said Jack, with a look of half entreaty towards Kate.

"I shall be but too happy," said Kate, while she turned the nearly completed sketch to the wall, but not so rapidly as to prevent Ma.s.singbred's catching a glimpse of it.

"How like!" exclaimed he, but only in a whisper audible to himself. "I didn't know that this also was one of your accomplishments."

A little laugh and a saucy motion of her head was all her reply, while she went in search of her bonnet and shawl. She was back again in a moment, and the three now issued forth into the wood.

For all Jack Ma.s.singbred's boasted "tact," and his a.s.sumed power of suiting himself to his company, he felt very ill at ease as he walked along that morning. "His world" was not that of the poor country girl at his side, and he essayed in vain to find some topic to interest her. Not so Kate Henderson. With all a woman's nice perception, and quite without effort, she talked to Joan about the country and the people, of whose habits she knew sufficient not to betray ignorance; and although Joan felt at times a half-suspicious distrust of her, she grew at length to be pleased with the tone of easy familiarity used towards her, and the absence of anything bordering on superiority.

Joan, whose instincts and sympathies were all with the humble cla.s.s from which she sprung, described in touching language the suffering condition of the people, the terrible struggle against dest.i.tution maintained for years, and daily becoming more difficult and hopeless. It was like a shipwrecked crew reduced to quarter-rations, and now about to relinquish even these!

"And they are patient under all this?" asked Kate, with that peculiar accent so difficult to p.r.o.nounce its meaning.

"They are, indeed, miss," was the answer.

"Have they any hope? What do they promise themselves as the remedy for these calamities?"

"Sorrow one of 'em knows," said she, with a sigh. "Some goes away to America, some sinks slowly under it, and waits for G.o.d's time to leave the world; and a few--but very few--gets roused to anger, and does something to be transported or put in jail."

"And Miss Martin,--does she not relieve a good deal of this misery? Is she not of immense benefit by her exertions here?"

"Arrah, what can a young lady do, after all? Sure it's always them that talks most and best gets over her. Some are ashamed, and some are too proud to tell what they 're suffering; and I believe in my heart, for one that 's relieved there are twenty more angry at seeing how lucky he was."

They walked along now for some time in silence, when Joan, stopping short, said, "There's the house, miss; that's the place I live in."

"That house far away on the mountain side?"

"Yes, miss; it's four miles yet from this."

"But surely you haven't to walk all that way?"

"What signifies it? Is n't my heart lighter than when I came along this morning? And now I won't let you come any farther, for I'll take a short cut here across the fields."

"May I go and see you one of these days?" asked Kate.

Joan grew crimson to the very roots of her hair, and turned a look on Ma.s.singbred, as though to say, "You ought to answer this for me." But Jack was too deep in his own thoughts even to notice the appeal.

"I can scarcely ask _you_ to come to _me_," said Kate, quickly perceiving a difficulty, "for I 'm not even a visitor at Cro' Martin."

"I 'm sure I hope it 's not the last time we 'll meet, miss; but maybe,"--she faltered, and a heavy tear burst forth, and rolled slowly along her cheek,--"maybe you oughtn't to come and see me."

Kate pressed her hand affectionately, without speaking, and they parted.

"Is Joan gone?" asked Ma.s.singbred, raising his head from an att.i.tude of deep revery. "When did she leave us?"