CHAPTER IX.
FRED NEVILLE RETURNS TO SCROOPE.
The suddenness of the demand made for the heir's presence at Scroope was perhaps not owing to the Earl's illness alone.

The Earl, indeed, was ill,--so ill that he thought himself that his end was very near; but his illness had been brought about chiefly by the misery to which he had been subjected by the last despatch from Castle Quin to the Countess.

"I am most unwilling," she said, "to make mischief or to give unnecessary pain to you or to Lord Scroope; but I think it my duty to let you know that the general opinion about here is that Mr.Neville shall make Miss O'Hara his wife,--_if he has not done so already_.

The most dangerous feature in the whole matter is that it is all managed by the priest of this parish, a most unscrupulous person, who would do anything,--he is so daring.

We have known him many many years, and we know to what lengths he would go.