Page:Hornung - Irralies Bushranger.djvu/175

 who impressed him was "a decent, rugged soul, who does all the odd jobs about the homestead, and is Irralie's factotum; unluckily, the poor fellow is quite deaf, but I both spoke and read into his ear-trumpet, and he faithfully promised to be confirmed."

The great wish of his last months was to live long enough to see his son and Irralie when they brought the boy over to send him to his first school. And this wish crystallized in the desire to look once more in Irralie's eyes.

"They are like her own native skies," said the late lord, simply. "I never saw them wet, nor yet cloudy, but twice while I was there. The first time was when I arrived, and the second when I bade her good-by."

But there came a third.