330 The Real Charlotte. 



treat or the perilous ascent of one of the walls. It em- 

 bodied the simple expedient of bygone farmers for clearing 

 their fields of stones, and contained raw material enough to 

 build a church. Charlotte, Mr. Lambert, and Francie ad- 

 vanced in single file along its meaningless windings, until it 

 finished its career at the gate of the Stone Field, a long 

 tongue of pasture that had the lake for a boundary on three 

 of its sides, and was cut off from the mainland by a wall not 

 inferior in height and solidity to those of the lane. 



" There, Roddy," said Miss Mullen, as she opened the 

 gate, " there's where I had to banish them, and I don't 

 think they're too badly off." 



The young horses were feeding at the farthest point of 

 the field, fetlock deep in the flowery grass, with the sparkling 

 blue of the lake making a background to their slender shapes. 



" They look like money, Charlotte, I think. That brown 

 filly ought to bring a hundred at least next Ballinasloe fair, 

 when she knows how to jump," said Lambert, as he and 

 Charlotte walked across the field, leaving Francie, who saw 

 no reason for pretending an interest that was not expected 

 of her, to amuse herself by picking cowslips near the gate. 



"I'm glad to hear you say that, Roddy," replied Charlotte. 

 *' It's a comfort to think anything looks like money these 

 bad times ; I've never known prices so low." 



" They're lower than I ever thought they'd go, by Jove," 

 Lambert answered gloomily. " I'm going up to Mayo, 

 collecting, next week, and if I don't do better there than I've 

 done here, I daresay Dysart won't think so much of his 

 father's shoes after all." 



He was striding along, taking no trouble to suit his pace 

 to Charlotte's, and perhaps the indifference to her com- 

 panionship that it showed, as well as the effort involved in 

 keeping beside him, had the effect of irritating her. 



"Maybe he might think them good enough to kick people 

 out with," she said with a disagreeable laugh ; " I remember, 

 in the good old times, when my father and Sir Benjamin 

 ruled the roast, we heard very little about bad collections." 



It struck Lambert that though this was the obvious 

 moment for that business talk that he had come over for, it 

 was not a propitious one. " I wonder if the macaroni 

 cheese disagreed with her ? " he thought ; " it was beastly 



