CHAPTER II.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 29, 7 November 1884, Page 5

CHAPTER 11.

The summer's morning was bright and balmy, and Redmond, after a yeoman's breakfast— consisting of trout fried with bacon, fresh eggs, tea in which cream was pre-eminent — started out in the glorious sunlight which was irradiating hill and dale, mountain and valley. The forget-me-nots told their tale to the crystal pools, the graceful ferns languidly embraced the lichen-covered stones, an occasional cur, basking in the heat and glow, opened a lazy eye as Phil passed along the road, and compromised a bark with a prolonged yawn. The hawthorns threw their shadows across the path, and the " blossoming furze, unprofitably cay " sent forth that fresh, quaint and delicious perfume that tells us with speechless eloquence, that we are out in the bright green country, and away from the heat and turmoil and loathsomeness of the over-crowded human hive.

Having promised to join his newly found friends at Lough Dan, Phil took the steep and romantic road that leads to the lake direct from the village of Bound wood. Far away to the left in the summer, haze lav the picturesque village of Annamoe,and farther still the sweet sad valley of Glendalougb, guarded by the giant Lug na Culliagh, while the deep-tinted groves of Castle Kevin lent a delicious contrast to the purple heights of the heather-covered Derrybawn ; on his right the grim, gray crags of Luggelaw, and, as he gained the crest of the hill, the blue waters of Lough Dan lay mirrored beneath him, reflecting the giant shadows of Carrig-na-Leena. The exquisite loveliness of the Bcene fell upon the young American like a dream or a perfume. It was refreshing yet almost intoxicating. He thought of the colour glories of the Hudson in the fall of the blood-reds and orange yellows and the wine hues of the autumn foliage, and they seared his mental vision when he came to contemplate the soft, cloudy green, the odor-laden atmosphere, pure yet filmy as a bridal veil, and the delicious completeness of the coup d'csll, so satisfying, soothing, and so enrevishing.

Somehow or other he associated all thi9 perfection with the fair young girl whose pale face and mantliog blush still haunted his imagination like a sweet strain of music. These scenes were a suitable setting for her beauty. She would comprehend them, she would commune with nature in this wild secluded spot, so lonely and yet so lovely. As his ideas glided iato this rosy channel, his revcry was suddenly disturbed by the sound of wheels, and close upon him came a basket phaeton attached to a diminutive pony, His heart gave one violent bound— the object of his immediate and gushing thoughts was the occupant of the vehicle. Would she pass without noticing him 7 There had been no introduction. He could expect no recognition, and yet — Chance fills up many a gap in life, solves many riddles, and hastens many denoum'ents.

The pony, evideutly a wilful, over-petted, hand-fed little brute, took it into its stubborn head that a rest at tbis particular spot in the road would admirably suit his inclinations ; and as he feared no whip, and, save a gentle chuck upon the reins and a solemn admonish.* merit from his fair mistress, his whim could be indulged in with comparative impunity, he proceeded forthwith to carry his idea into execution, and stopped with a jerk right opposite where Phil Redmond stood. " Do go on, Doaty 1" exclaimed Miss O'Byrne, shaking the reins. "Do go on, there's a pet. You shall have a lump of sugar when we get to the stable." Doaty shook his head and stolidly gazed at the lake beneath him. "Permit me to try and persuade him," said Phil, stepping forward and lifting his hat, which, by the way, doubled up in his hand, clumsily concealing his face and utterly destroying the bow. "Oh ! thanks ; I seemed destined to give you trouble sir." This was a delicate recognition. " I have to thank you for making me the most popular man at Round wood. " retorted Mr. Redmond . " I feel like a lord-lieutenant. I had quite a levee this morning." " And your courtiers, instead of looking for place, were seeking for pence." " A distinction without much difference." " Except in the viceroy," she laughed. Doaty was as good as gold— at least so thought one of the party— and manifested no intention of budging an inch. "What a tiresome pony I" exclaimed Miss O'Bryne. "I shall have to beat him." " Let me try and get him along." And Phil, taking hold of his shaggy main, lugged the unwilling Doaty along in the direction of the lake. " This is really too bad, sir," remonstrated Miss O'Bryne. " I cannot tax you in this way." "Itis no tax I assure you. I have nothing on earth to do but to revel in the especial sunshine of this moment." This was said with ever so slight an emphasis ; nevertheless it bore a scarlet blossom in the rich blush which came whispering all over the young girl's charming pallor. " You — you are are a stranger here ?" " I am, and yet I ought not to be." * " This savors of a riddle." "Very easily solved. My forefathers hunted these hills and fished that lake. My father was reckless, extravagant, and new men came into possession of the old acres. My father emigrated, and made' a great deal of money in New York, and—" * " I have been iv New York," interposed the young lady. Here was a bridge for travel-thought. Here was a market for mutual mental wares. " Did you like it ?" he asked. "Like!" she exclaimed,*enthußiastically " who could dislike it ? It is the most charming city, perhaps excepting Paris, that I have ever lived in. And how are Fifth Avenue and Broadway, and the ash-boxes ?" she added with a ringing laugh. Doaty made another stop, and no earthly inducement would stir him until he so willed it himself. His fair mistress relinquished the idea and the reinß, and, stepping from the vehicle, clambered, with the assistance of Redmond, to a moss-grown bank, from which phe pointed out some objects of special interest in the scenery. " That is Billy Doyle's cottage at Shionagh, down far in the valley by the edge of the lake. See the amber thatch glowing in the sunlight, and the red flag. That flag shows that poor Mr. Fenler is on the lake fishing." , " Who is poor Mr. Fenler ?" asked Phil. "He is the man who was a great merchant in Dublin, but who lost all his property, and his wife, and all his children. He saved as much from the wreck as enabled him to purchase one-half of that cottage— the slatted half— and to support himself. He came here seven years ago having made a row never to leave the valley again. ' "And has he kept it?" " Religiously. He goes nowhere, and spends his whole time in fishing Do you see that golden strand at the bead of the lake ?" " Yes." 11 Well, there is a legend about that which you should hear. Any old crone in the valley will do it ample justice." " I should prefer to hear it from a fairy on the hill," said Redmond, gallantly. " Pas de compliments, although yours was clearly French." "You beat me at my own weapons," laughed Redmond. "But whose palatiarresidence is that right over in the cleft between these two hills ?" " The fire lighted up the young jjirl's eye, the delicate nostril expanded, the rich, ripe lips quivered," as she proudly replied : " That is my home." Her horne — the nest in which she had been nurtured. What a precious flower in that gloomy valley I What a world of love and joy and beauty in that lone and sequestered spot 1 •' I envy you," murmured Phil. " The tranquil loveliness of your home is — " he was going to send the words from his heart to his lips, bat luckily they encountered Prudence upon the road, aud altered themselves to suit that cold, passionless, interfering busybody — " is — just as it ought to be. You have made no vows to leave this valley 1 " he added. "No, but I have often thought it." " Such a determination would be a calamity, Miss O'Byrne." " How do you know my name ?" she quickly demanded. " I asked the waiter after you had left." " Now for an exchange," she laughed. " Let us trade. What is your name?" " Philip Redmond, son of Redmond of Ballymacreedy." " Why, that is Ballymacreedy, exclaimed the young girl, pointing to a fir-covered mountain, upon the side of which, as though I perched on a shelf, stood agaunt,uncompromising-looking,square-builti

mansion, all roof and windows. Phil Redmond's feelings, as he gazed on the home he had never known save by hearsay, were of a varied and conflicting nature. He had pictured it a feudal stronghold towering over an extensive lake such as America boasts of— a diminutive ocean— a battlemented castle, with keep and moat and drawbridge, ivy-grown in the interests of the picturesque and plateglassed in the interests of modern sunlight. " Good heavens I" he exclaimed involuntarily, " how unlike what I conceived it to be. What a cruel disappointment I" So rudely were his ideas shattered, and so bitterly the pride of baronial halls mortified, that the poor fellow's heartfelt quite crushed. Whether Miss O'Byrne saw this or whether Doaty Baw it is not the question here ; but certes, that admirable little brute gave a loud neigh as a trumpet-call to Redmond's scattered senses, and evinced for the first moment during the preceding half-hour a desire to proceed upon his homeward journey. " Papa does not visit, Mr. Redmond," said Miss O'Byrne, as she grasped the reins upon resuming her seat in the basket upon the wheels ; " but I shall ask him to call upon you, when I may hope for something like a formal introduction. How half an hour flies upon tbe wings of sans oeremmie /" And with a delicious inclination of the head, half-saucy, half-dignified, and wholly piqtinnte, she disappeared at the turn of the road leading into the valley. " Heigho-h ! " sighed Philip Redmond of Bally macreedy. (To le continued.')