that Jack saw on his entrance was her charming head, with its shining dark braids, leaning against the chimney, eyes and lips smiling with mischievous delight, as she named the nuts by the names of her neighbours and friends, and applied to them the light which was sure to discover their future. All the merry faces that had been watching the fire turned on the door and scrutinized Peter's friend as he came in.

Jack, the strange sailor from England, entered Nell's kitchen with a graceful step and gentlemanly bearing to which the simple cottagers were unaccustomed. He was a tall, slight young fellow, with fair, curly hair, laughing eyes, and a yellow moustache. His sailor clothing sat upon him in the most picturesque manner possible. Old Bart involuntarily rose to meet him, as if he had been a superior instead of only a strange sailor who had dropped upon the Point, as strange sailors are in the habit of frequently doing.

"You're welcome, sir, being a stranger, let alone a friend of Peter's. I've been in England myself. Do they burn nuts on Hallow-eve where you came from? Nell, put down a pair of nuts for Peter's comrade."

"He must name them, then," said Nell, as she obeyed, "for I do not know his friends."

"I shall not take fire at all unless you burn me with yourself," said Jack, who had managed to make his way to her side.

Every one laughed, and Nell, not displeased, proceeded to place the nuts and set them alight, all eyes being turned towards the fire, to see what Fate would do for pretty Nell and the handsome young stranger who had suddenly dropped at her feet. For awhile the nuts burned beautifully, shooting forth frolicsome flames and keeping close together, but at last the nut Nell uttered a long hiss, and bounded with a shriek into the ashes.

"That's me," said Nell, triumphantly; "I never was burned yet but I did the same!"

"Take care, then, Miss Nellie," said an old man, shaking his white head, "you may jump oncet too often.”

Nell laughed good-humouredly, and gathering up the nut-ashes of the faithful stranger who had burned quietly away alone upon the bar, she presented them to their owner "to be dreamed on with a mocking little curtsey, and after that the sports began in earnest, Girls had their thick hair drenched, trying to bring the japple out of the tub with a bite; and men had their whiskers singed off, snapping at the stick on which the blazing candle twirled. The fiddler performed on his fiddle, and many merry feet beat time to his tunes. Jack the stranger did not know how to dance the Irish jig, and Nell acted as his dancing-mistress,"

46

'Peter," said Jack the next morning, "this adventure of mine becomes interesting. There is a girl in yonder little house fit to be

a duchess."

Peter turned pale. "Do you mean Nell ?" he asked."

"That is her name."

"Sir-you must not make a jest of that girl!"

"Peter!"

"She is too good for it, sir. I will not allow it."
"Hallo, my brother! Are you going to marry her?"
Peter turned away. "I wish to God I was," he said.
"You asked her, perhaps, and were refused?"

"Just so," said Peter, folding his arms, and looking his friend in the face.

"Then, my good fellow, be content to stand aside and make way for other people.'

The two young men gazed at each other, making a contrast, the one so light and fair and womanishly handsome, the other with broad steady brow and thoughtful eye, more roughly hewn, more firmly knit; of stronger, though not of coarser clay.

"So I do," said Peter, "for other people like myself who would cherish her as she ought to be cherished. Not for one like you-out of her station, only come across her by an adventure, and sure to break her heart and go away and forget her."

Jack suddenly held out his hand. "You are a good fellow, Peter, and I respect you. Don't be afraid, even if I do fall in love with Nell. I am of age and my own master, and can marry whom I please."

"Your word upon that," said Peter, gloomily.

"My word and oath," said Jack; and then they parted, Peter groaning as he went at the easy condescension in the tone of the voice that had vowed not to break the heart of his precious Nell.

Sailor Jack had no intention of leaving Killowen Point again in a hurry. He hired a small hooker and appeared to be doing some little business between Carlingford and Warrenpoint; but his account of the "business" was rather vague, and his irregular movements from place to place had very much the air of being directed by the whim of his own sweet will. Wherever he went, Peter Dunne accompanied him, except, indeed, when he walked on the beach with Nell, or took her out with him in his boat; Peter was then careful to be absent, having no wish to see the girl's brightening eyes and hear her joyful laugh, both of which told him how happy she was in the company of this stranger, who had bewitched her. The neighbours were surprised to find that Peter allowed his ship to sail without him, but concluded that his share in the stranger's somewhat mysterious "business" must be so profitable as to induce him to give up everything else for its sake. What those two did with their hooker to make it pay, when they were away in it occasionally, for a day at a time, the good people of the Point were perplexed to find out. Some who disliked the stranger's airs of superiority were fain to hint that the trade they carried on was not altogether a fair one, and lamented that an honest fellow like Peter Dunne should have fallen in with bad company. The same people shook their heads over Nell's bewitchment, and did not fail to foresee much misery in her future. Others there were who admired handsome Jack, liked to hear him speaking with his pretty English accent, took no offence from his gentlemanly manners, and were rather proud of

his foreign testimony to the winsome charms of their favourite Nell.

There was one who did not actually dislike his handsome face and dashing ways, and yet who resented sorely the cloud on Peter's brows, and the look of unusual happiness which was becoming habitual to Nell. Kitty feared that the coming of Jack to Killowen would prove in no way a blessing to her friends, though she could not exactly have said what was the danger she feared from his influence.

A great delight of Kitty's life was the hour when, having finished her ironing, she could escape from her own toilsome home to Nell's bright little kitchen, and her joy was complete if old Bart happened to be smoking his pipe in a neighbour's house, so that she and Nell could sit with their heads together over the blazing turf, telling their innocent secrets, and dreaming and wondering, as girls of all classes are accustomed to do.

"Kitty!" said Nell, one evening, "why does Peter Dunne look so strange these days?"

"Why do you think?" said Kitty. "If I was you I wouldn't need to ask, 'deed! How could he look but strange, to see the way you're goin' on; his own heart bein' in you, poor fellow!"

"No, Kitty, it isn't that; Peter isn't the man to keep grudgin' and hankerin'. He wouldn't stay here watching me if he hadn't some good reason for it. Peter's no spy; but he's true-hearted and kind as ever a man in the world. There's not many Peters goin', I can tell you. Kitty."

"I'm glad to hear you say it, Nell. Maybe you're goin' to marry him after all."

"No, indeed," said Nell, with something between a laugh and a sob. "Then something has happened to you since morning, however," said Kitty, "I suppose you've given your word to that yellow-haired sailor-that you didn't even know was alive two months ago."

Nell nodded her head, and a brilliant smile shone out through her glistening tears.

"Kitty, I wish you would take up with Peter Dunne. He'd make the best husband in the world; and you'd be such a good little wife to comfort him."

"Na, Nell," said Kitty, drily, "I would not be a comfortin' sort of a sweetheart. I'll see and have a whole man to myself as soon as I feel to want one. Them rusty old flat irons of mother's are enough on my mind at present; when she buys me a box-iron, I'll have time to begin to think about my future prospects. There'll be plenty of little boys grown up for me in the meantime, I'm afeard."

Nell looked at her for a minute, inquiringly, struck by something in the girl's tone; and then her mind suddenly fell back on the original thought with which she had started the conversation.

"Oh, Kitty!" she said, clasping her hands and lowering her voice to a whisper, "why does Peter Dunne keep watching us so anxiously? Do you think can he know anything wrong about Jack? It's not jealousy nor crossness I see in his face, but only anxiety for me. And he's the only one here that knows anything about him!"

CHAPTER III.

THE HON. MRS. FLAMBOROUGH.

NELL'S fit of uneasiness passed away, and she was ready to trust Jack implicitly and to declare herself satisfied, even though he gave only a very vague account of himself. She was quite uncertain of when they were to be married or where they were to live; but in the meantime he hung about her, worshipping her with the utmost devotion, and obedient to her slightest wish. He had given her a ring which had made her the envy of the neighbourhood, jewels being quite unknown to the sailors' wives about Kiliowen Point. Those who preferred to think badly of Jack, considered this trinket as a token that he was not what he ought to be. For how could a poor sailor come honestly by a diamond ring?

"Father's uneasy," said Nell, one evening, when the old man had fallen asleep in the chimney corner, and the lovers were talking in the firelight; "he says he wishes you weren't such a stranger. He's afraid you will be taking me far away from him.”

"Well, my love," said Jack, "old people must expect to be left behind. It has always been so, and it cannot be helped. It is pretty certain that you and I are not going to take up house on Killowen Point. There is a future before us very different from that."

Nell's heart swelled with a great pain; she glanced around her humble home, the home where she had been so happy and free from care; and it came across her sharply that she had never been so light of heart since the night when this fascinating stranger had suddenly appeared on her hearth. Why could she not have guarded herself against his charming ways, and remained merry and free in the dear old chimney corner? Or else why not have given her love to another, who would have respected her devotion to her father, and would have allowed her to spend her life by his side? The firelight flickered over the old man's gray head, drooping in slumber, and threw pathetic lines over his face, and a wild sorrow suddenly rose up in Nell and shook her till she grew faint and sick, seeing vividly before her, as if in the present, that hour which would find the old man here alone in the solitude and silence, and no daughter within reach or call. Tick, tick, went the clock on the wall, and boom, boom, rolled the waves on the shingle. The clock's voice had been as the cricket's merry chirrup, the sea's friendly roar as music which was a natural accompaniment to life; now, for a strange moment, the one was like the lonely beating of a broken heart in a human breast, the other like a cruel summons to a new and uncongenial life, to be passed in strange and unhomelike lands. In that moment she saw her home empty of her, all the corners unfamiliar and unacquainted with her; she heard strangers' footsteps on the tiles, across which her little heels could clink so pleasantly; she beheld the gray old head laid on a bier and carried away in forsaken silence to the graveyard on the mountain

side. She saw herself returning, after years, to kneel remorsefully at an untended grave.

Nell neither sobbed nor spoke, as the vision of the future passed and the sorrow shook her soul; but a spasm contracted her brows, all unseen by the gay blue eyes which were turned on the dancing firelight with a serene and self-complacent stare. Another pair of eyes were fixed on her however, and saw the unwonted sorrow upon her face. Peter Dunne, passing and repassing the house, like a wandering spirit, saw the group in the firelight through the window, and smitten with a pain more keen even than hers, vowed that he would bring that yellow-haired, softly-smiling suitor to his senses, and free Nell from the uncertainty which he believed to be the cause of her pain. He walked up and down patiently till Jack came out of the house, and then he joined him and walked by his side.

"Is that you, Peter ?" said Jack, carelessly; "lurking about as usual. A rough night for a saunter on the beach."

"Sir," said Peter, I want to have a serious word with you, for once."

"Once, twice, thrice: as often as you like!" said Jack, with a

yawn.

'When are you going to be married, sir ?"

"That's a point on which I feel very uncertain, Peter."

"But I tell you that you must make up your mind, sir," said Peter, angrily.

"And I tell you, my good fellow, that I shall do as I please, and that I am not going to have you dogging my steps in this very impertinent manner. It would be much better taste if you would go about your business, and allow me to manage my affairs my own way."

"I don't know anything about taste," said Peter;-" that is a matter for ladies and gentlemen-but I know that I will never leave your side till I see you married rightfully in your own name in yonder church."

"For very
little I would throw you into the sea, Peter."
"Would you
?"

"There, don't look so dangerous. I'm not sure I should do itbut at least I should try."

"Don't; because I'd rather not hurt you if I could help it, if not for old times' sake, at least for the sake of-her."

"I know you are a good fellow, Peter, and I don't intend to quarrel with you. Besides, to tell you the truth, I am quite as perplexed as yourself. If we were not so desperately fond of one another, I'd be inclined to give the thing up altogether. I am afraid my mother will make a horrible row."

"Then, for God's sake, make up your mind, and don't keep Nell in this uncertainty. If you told her honestly it couldn't be, an' went away an' left her with her father at peace, she's that sort of a girl that I believe she wouldn't be a coward over it. But if you keep on shillyshallying, and letting her get fonder of you, you'll break her heart. And, if you do, may you never go to heaven!"

"Thank you," said Jack; "I confess I'm not anxious to go to