accomplished by your absence will be
effected as well by your departure for
Dublin, where you may remain for three
weeks or a month without giving rise to
curiosity or doubt of an unpleasant kind;
I would therefore advise you strongly to
write immediately to the colonel, stating
that business has occurred to defer your
departure for a month, and you can then
leave this place, if you think fit,
immediately, that is, within a week or so.'

Young O'Mara was not hard to be persuaded.
Perhaps it was that, unacknowledged
by himself, any argument which
recommended his staying, even for an
hour longer than his first decision had
announced, in the neighbourhood of Ellen
Heathcote, appeared peculiarly cogent and
convincing; however this may have been,
it is certain that he followed the counsel of
his cool-headed follower, who retired that
night to bed with the pleasing conviction
that he was likely soon to involve his
young patron in all the intricacies of
disguise and intrigue--a consummation which
would leave him totally at the mercy of
the favoured confidant who should possess
his secret.