Muslin

anxious to meet mistress than this little deformed girl to see her friend; and Alice could s

hought Alice; and immediately after Ceci

am so glad! I thought you

u think I was going to

to kiss the wa

en;' and the great brown eyes began to melt with tears of de

as much mine as yours; and

akwood, across the fields into the hi

t be too f

to Brookfield. But tell me, dear,' said Cecilia, clinging to her friend's arm, 'why have you not been over to see me before? It is not

I cannot think why, but somehow she does not seem to care that I should go to Dungory Castle.

isters advised me-I mean, ins

d w

n't say,' re

She longed to talk the matter out, but dared not; while Cecilia regretted she had spoken; for, w

n the view, and the stately red deer, lolling their high necks, marched away through the hillocks, as if offended at their solitude being disturbed. One

ink there could be finer weather, and still they say the tenants are worse off than

f Griffith's valuatio

my sisters' school-you know they have a school, and go in for trying to convert the people-well, this has got papa into a great deal of trouble. The Bishop has sent down another

account of the

rent; and that he wasn't going to have his life endangered for such nonsense. There was an awful row at home this morning. For my own part, I must say I sympathize with papa. Besides the school, Sarah has, you know, a shop, where she sells bacon, sugar, and tea at cost price, and it is well-known that those who send their children to the school will never be asked to pay their bills. She wanted me to come and help to weigh out the meal, Jane being confined to h

ed to lecture Violet for getting up to look out of the windows. What used she to say? 'Do you want

und the field at the back of the convent was interrupted by the terrifying sound of a cock-pheasant getting up from some bracken under their very feet; and, amid the scurrying of rabbits in couples and half-dozens, modest allusion was made to the girls who had been expelled in '75. Absorbed in the sweetness of the past, the girls mused, until they emerged fro

id Alice, who wished to cease thinking of

ensible than the other two. Gladys wearies me with her a

y the best of the names,

ome?' said Cecilia, when th

n your ladyship-

inst the wall, the two rosewood cabinets were symmetrically placed on either side of the farther window; from brass rods the thick, green curtains hung in stiff folds, and, since the hanging of some

that gossip had magnified to three thousand. They were known as the heiresses of Kinvarra; snub noses and blue eyes betrayed their Celtic blood; and every year they went to spend a month at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, returning home wit

o kind of you to give yourself all

put out her hand. Her

delighted to see you. Will you ha

y. On her devolved the entire management of the house and servants; the two elder sis

s reported, was going to be married. But, as Alice did not know the person whose antecedents were being called into question, she took an early opportunity of asking Gladys if she cared for riding? 'No, they never went to ride now: they used to, but they came in so fatigued that they could not talk to Emily; so they had given up riding.' Did they care for driving? 'Yes, pretty well; but there was no place to drive to except into Gort, and as people had been unjust

e; all was vague and contradictory. She had talked to these Brennans, seen how they lived, could guess what their past was, what their future must be. In that neat little house their uneventful life dribbled a

uty but, by blotting herself out, to shield herself from the attacks of ever-slandering friends. Alice had looked forward to a hus

wonder none of those Brennans married; you can't call them ugly girls, and they

oked strangely at Alice as she helped her over the low wall. The girls walked in silence through t

as tall as you are, dear, nothing would induce me to marry. I never took the slightest pleasure in any man's conver

men. I don't care for those I have met hitherto, particularly those I saw

there

speak so positively as that; you have

an guess it all, I know it i

else, so we must m

hat make me hate life-and I do hate it; it is the way we are brought back to earth, and forced to realize how vile and degraded we are. Society seems to me no better than a pigsty; but in the beautiful convent-that we shall, alas! never see again-it was not so. There, at least, life was pure-yes, and beauti

Cecilia did not see her; the prominent eyes of the mystic were veiled with strange glamour, and, with di

and, strange to say, no one suspects you are an unb

t to believe; it is hardly a thing

ld pray f

I can pray if I

ce-you never told me-did you never believe i

g myself to credit that there was a Being far away, sitting behind a cloud, who kept his eye on all the different worlds

that something awful might happen to you for ta

he exists, be angry with me for my sincerity? If he be

woodcutters. Gold rays slanted through the glades, enveloping and rounding off the tall smooth trunks that rose branchless to a height of

, I wonder you don't

of nature is broken when we

leaf rustled through the silence-'And do you think that we shall die like that lea

will decay through the winter, and perhaps the next, until it finally becomes part of the earth. Everythin

is the mean

never learn from listening

a bird broke the mild

ce

ght that troubles us i

there was something of the passion of the lover in Cecilia's voice: 'Promise me you will come to see me so

eam-coloured ponies, with a florid woman drivin

Alice, watching the blue vei

is?' said Cecilia; 'that

wl

at I know nobody-I have been anxious to see her. Wh

heard that she

y about Mr. Lawler's shooting-parties; then mamma looked at him; he laughed and spoke of

women that walk about

had never spoken upon such a subject before, and the presence of the defor

awler married her. W

d, scornfully: 'but what does it matte

s were the same as they were at school. Olive? She could see but little change in her sister; and May she had scarcely spoken to since they left school; Violet she hadn't met since th

be the handsomest gir

did you

ow he knew. Wa

and what did

supposed-I forget the exact words, but they were very nice; I am sure he admired my new hat; but you

ing as it is; but tell

ber

ing to meet us at Mass

hol

, dear, and a

wouldn't be able