We cannot undertake to account for this omission, nor do more than record what actually happened.

Neither do we know why Dora blushed so deeply as she did, nor why the sparkling and rapid glance which she gave him in return occasioned him to look down with an appearance of confusion and pain.

That some understanding subsisted between young Cavanagh--for he was Gerald's son--and Dora might have been evident to a close observer; but in truth there was at that moment no such thing as a close observer among them, every eye being fixed with impatience and curiosity upon Tom M'Mahon, who had now most of the conversation to himself, little else being left to the share of his auditors than the interjectional phrases and exclamations of wonder at his extraordinary account of Dublin.
"But, father," said Bryan, "about the business that brought you there?
Did you get the Renewal ?" "I got as good," replied the simple-hearted old man, "an' that was the, word of a gintleman--an' sure they say that that's the best security in the world." "Well, but how was it ?" they exclaimed, "an' how did it happen that you didn't get the Lease itself ?" "Why, you see," he proceeded in reply, "the poor gintleman was near his end--an' it was owin' to Pat Corrigan that I seen him at all--for Pat, you know, is his own man.

When I went in to where he sat I found Mr.
Fethertonge the agent wid him: he had a night-cap on, an' was sittin' in a big armchair, wid one of his feet an' a leg swaythed wid flannel.

I thought he was goin' to write or sign papers.