did not occur to him at first to give his mother's message to his
companion. As for lunch, they would get a biscuit and glass of
cherry-brandy at Wat M'Carthy's, of Drumban; and as for his mother
having anything to say, that of course went for nothing.

Owen would have been glad to have gone up to the house, but in that
he was frustrated by the earl's sharpness in catching him. His next
hope was to get through the promised lesson in horse-leaping as
quickly as possible, so that he might return to Desmond Court, and
take his chance of meeting Clara. But in this he found the earl very
difficult to manage.

"Oh, Owen, we won't go there," he said, when Fitzgerald proposed a
canter through some meadows down by the river-side. "There are only
a few gripes"--Irish for small ditches--"and I have ridden Fireball
over them a score of times. I want you to come away towards
Drumban."

"Drumban! why, Drumban's seven miles from here."

"What matter? Besides, it's not six the way I'll take you. I want to
see Wat M'Carthy especially. He has a litter of puppies there out of
that black bitch of his, and I mean to make him give me one of
them."

But on that morning, Owen Fitzgerald would not allow himself to be
taken so far a-field as Drumban, even on a mission so important as
this. The young lord fought the matter stoutly; but it ended by his
being forced to content himself with picking out all the most
dangerous parts of the fences in the river meadows.