Page 195 - The snake's pass

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IN THE CLIFF FIELDS. 183 !
plateau, and climbed the rock, and walked down the
boreen on my way for Carnaclif.
And then, and for the first time, did a thought
strike me — one which for a moment made my blood
run cold—Dick!
Aye—Dick ! What about him ? It came to me with a
shudder, that my happiness—if it should be my happi-
ness—must be based on the pain of my friend. Here,
then, there was perhaps a clue to Norah's strange
Could Dick have made a proposal
gravity ! to her ?
He admitted having spoken to her—why should he, too,
not have been impulsive? Why should it not be that
he, being the first to declare himself, had got a favour-
able answer, and that now Norah was not free to
choose ?
How I cursed the delay in finding her—how I cursed
and found fault with everyone and everything ! Andy
especially came in for my ill-will. He, at any rate,
knew that my unknown of the hill-top at Knocknacar
was none other than Norah
And yet, stay ! who but Andy persisted in turning
my thoughts to Norah, and more than once suggested
my paying a visit to Shleenanaher to see her? No
Andy must be acquitted at all points : common justice
demanded that. Who, then, was I to blame? Not
Andy—not Dick, who was too noble and too loyal a
friend to give any cause for such a thought. Had he
not asked me at the first if the woman of my fancy
was not . this very woman ; and had he not confessed