An Eye for an Eye | Page 9

Irish Miss O'Hara!
And Fred Neville was spending his time in pursuit of this girl! Lady
Scroope had known what it would be when the young man was allowed
to return to his regiment in spite of the manifold duties which should
have bound him to Scroope Manor.
I have seen this young lady,
continued Lady Mary,
and she is certainly very pretty. But nobody knows anything about
them; and I cannot even learn whether they belong to the real O'Haras.

I should think not, as they are Roman Catholics. At any rate Miss
O'Hara can hardly be a fitting companion for Lord Scroope's heir. I
believe they are ladies, but I don't think that any one knows them here,
except the priest of Kilmacrenny. We never could make out quite why
they came here,--only that Father Marty knows something about them.
He is the priest of Kilmacrenny. She is a very pretty girl, and I never
heard a word against her;--but I don't know whether that does not make
it worse, because a young man is so likely to get entangled.
I daresay nothing shall come of it, and I'm sure I hope that nothing may.
But I thought it best to tell you. Pray do not let him know that you have
heard from me. Young men are so very particular about things, and I
don't know what he might say of me if he knew that I had written home
to you about his private affairs. All the same if I can be of any service
to you, pray let me know. Excuse haste. And believe me to be,
Yours most sincerely,
MARY QUIN.
A Roman Catholic;--one whom no one knew but the priest;--a girl who
perhaps never had a father! All this was terrible to Lady Scroope.
Roman Catholics,--and especially Irish Roman Catholics,--were people
whom, as she thought, every one should fear in this world, and for
whom everything was to be feared in the next. How would it be with
the Earl if this heir also were to tell him some day that he was married?
Would not his grey hairs be brought to the grave with a double load of
sorrow? However, for the present she thought it better to say not a word
to the Earl.

CHAPTER III.
SOPHIE MELLERBY.
Lady Scroope thought a great deal about her friend's communication,
but at last made up her mind that she could do nothing till Fred should
have returned. Indeed she hardly knew what she could do when he did
come back. The more she considered it the greater seemed to her to be
the difficulty of doing anything. How is a woman, how is even a
mother, to caution a young man against the danger of becoming
acquainted with a pretty girl? She could not mention Miss O'Hara's
name without mentioning that of Lady Mary Quin in connexion with it.
And when asked, as of course she would be asked, as to her own
information, what could she say? She had been told that he had made
himself acquainted with a widow lady who had a pretty daughter, and
that was all! When young men will run into such difficulties, it is, alas,
so very difficult to interfere with them!
And yet the matter was of such importance as to justify almost any
interference. A Roman Catholic Irish girl of whom nothing was known
but that her mother was said to be a widow, was, in Lady Scroope's
eyes, as formidable a danger as could come in the way of her husband's
heir. Fred Neville was, she thought, with all his good qualities, exactly
the man to fall in love with a wild Irish girl. If Fred were to write home
some day and say that he was about to marry such a bride,--or, worse
again, that he had married her, the tidings would nearly kill the Earl.
After all that had been endured, such a termination to the hopes of the
family would be too cruel! And Lady Scroope could not but feel the
injustice of it. Every thing was being done for this heir, for whom
nothing need have been done. He was treated as a son, but he was not a
son. He was treated with exceptional favour as a son. Everything was at
his disposal. He might marry and begin life at once with every want
amply supplied, if he would only marry such a woman as was fit to be a

future Countess of Scroope. Very little was required from him. He was
not expected to marry an heiress. An heiress indeed was prepared for
him, and would be there, ready for him at Christmas,--an heiress,
beautiful, well-born, fit in every respect,--religious too. But he was not
to be asked to marry