When Nell passed away from Lamh Laudher, who would fain have flattered
himself that by turning back on the way, until she passed him, he had
avoided meeting her, he once more sought the place of appointment, at
the same slow pace as before. On arriving behind the orchard, he found,
as the progress of the evening told him, that he had anticipated the
hour at which it had been agreed to meet. He accordingly descended the
Grassy Quarry, and sat on a mossy ledge of rock, over which the brow of
a little precipice jutted in such a manner as to render those who sat
beneath, visible only from a particular point. Here he had scarcely
seated himself when the tread of a foot was heard, and in a few minutes
Nanse M'Collum stood beside him.

"Why, thin, bad cess to you, Lamh Laudher," she exclaimed, "but it's a
purty chase I had afther you."

"Afther me, Nanse? and what's the commission, _cush gastha_
(lightfoot)?"

"The sorra any thing, at all, at all, only to see if you war here. Miss
Ellen sent me to tell you that she's afeard she can't come this evenin',
unknownst to them."

"An' am I not to wait, Nanse?"

"Why, she says she--_will_ come, for all that, if she can; but she
bid me take your stick from you, for a rason she has, that she'll tell
yourself when she sees you."

"Take my stick! Why Nanse, _ma colleen baun_, what can she want with my