There was no tea and small talk at Hap House, but there were
hunting-dinners. Owen Fitzgerald was soon known for his horses and
his riding. He lived in the very centre of the Duhallow hunt; and
before he had been six months owner of his property had built
additional stables, with half a dozen loose boxes for his friends'
nags. He had an eye, too, for a pretty girl--not always in the way
that is approved of by mothers with marriageable daughters; but in
the way of which they so decidedly disapprove.

And thus old ladies began to say bad things. Those pleasant
hunting-dinners were spoken of as the Hap House orgies. It was
declared that men slept there half the day, having played cards all
the night; and dreadful tales were told. Of these tales one-half was
doubtless false. But, alas, alas! what if one-half were also true?

It is undoubtedly a very dangerous thing for a young man of
twenty-two to keep house by himself, either in town or country.






CHAPTER II

OWEN FITZGERALD