But this adventure, as he had been wont to call it, had fallen upon him, and had broken him as it were in pieces.

Thousands a year he would have paid to be rid of his adventure; but thousands a year, he knew well, were of no avail.

He might have sent over some English Mr.Crowe with offers almost royal; but he had been able so to discern the persons concerned as to know that royal offers, of which the royalty would be simply money royalty, could be of no avail.

How would that woman have looked at any messenger who had come to her with offers of money,--and proposed to take her child into some luxurious but disgraceful seclusion?
And in what language would Father Marty have expressed himself on such a proposed arrangement?
And so the Earl of Scroope drove on with his heart falling ever lower and lower within his bosom.
It had of course been necessary that he should form some plan.

He proposed to get rooms for one night at the little inn at Ennistimon, to leave his gig there, and then to take one of the country cars on to Liscannor.