24 The Real Charlotte, 



Charlotte sat in a low armchair and surveyed her drawing- 

 room with a good deal of satisfaction. Her fingers moved 

 gently through the long fur at the back of Mrs. Bruff's 

 head, administering, almost unconsciously, the most deli- 

 cately satisfactory scratching about the base of the wide, 

 sensitive ears, while her eyes wandered back to the pages of 

 the novel that lay open on her lap. She was a great and 

 insatiable reader, surprisingly well acquainted with the 

 classics of literature, and unexpectedly lavish in the purchase 

 of books. Her neighbours never forgot to mention, in 

 describing her, the awe-inspiring fact that she " took in the 

 English Times and the Saturday Review, and read every 

 word of them," but it was hinted that the bookshelves that 

 her own capable hands had put up in her bedroom held a 

 large proportion of works of fiction of a startlingly advanced 

 kind, " and," it was generally added in tones of mystery, 

 ** many of them French." 



It was half-past five o'clock, and the sharpest of several 

 showers that had fallen that day had caused Miss Mullen 

 to get up and shut the window, when the grinding of the 

 gate upon the gravel at the end of the short drive warned 

 her that the expected guest was arriving. As she got to 

 the hall door one of those black leather band-boxes on wheels, 

 known in the south and west of Ireland as "jingles " or in- 

 side cars, came brushing under the arch of wet evergreens, 

 and she ran out on to the steps. 



"Well, my dear child, welcome to Tally Ho !" she began 

 in tones of effusive welcome, as the car turned and backed 

 towards the doorstep in the accustomed way, then seeing 

 through the half-closed curtains that there was nothing inside 

 it except a trunk and a bonnet box, "Where in the name of 

 goodness is the young lady, Jerry ? Didn't you meet her 

 at the train ? " 



" I did to be sure," replied Jerry ; " sure she's afther me 

 on the road now. Mr. Lambert came down on the thrain 

 with her, and he's dhrivin' her here in his own thrap." 



While he was speaking there was the sound of quick trot- 

 ting on the road, and Miss Mullen saw a white straw hat and 

 a brown billycock moving swiftly along over the tops of the 

 evergreens. A dog-cart with a white-faced chestnut swung 

 in at the gate, and Miss Fitzpatrick's hat was immediately 



