KATE'S DAY WITH THE OLD HOESE 



" Yes, Kate, we are as nearly as possible ' stone 

 broke,' as your brother would say. The time seems 

 to have come, my girl, when ' honour may be deemed 

 dishonour, loyalty be called a crime,' at any rate in 

 Ireland ; and as we can't make our tenants pay rent, 

 we must go." 



The speaker was a massive-looking old gentleman 

 with clean-cut, weather-beaten features, and a heavy 

 white moustache. He had drawn his chair away 

 from the breakfast table, and was still knitting his 

 brows over his morning letters. 



Poor old Lowry, like his fathers before him, had 

 lived out of doors amongst his own tenantry all his 

 life, with a joke and a half-crown for anyone who 

 wanted them. 



Almost all the harm he had ever done was to win 

 a heart or two which he did not want, or drink a 

 glass or two more than was good for him. For forty 

 years he had paid rates and taxes, acted conscien- 

 tiously as a magistrate, and filled several other 

 onerous but unpaid offices for his Queen and such 



