Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/228

218 "I will try the bridge this time," she said, then looked after him as he went along the path to the house.

"You are Miss FitzGerald," Ernest said, his eyes admiring the girl before him.

"And you?"

"I am Ernest Kavanagh. My brother Hugh saved you—at least, from buying a new dress."

"That would be no misfortune for a woman," she answered. "How do you know I am Maud FitzGerald?"

"Your father told me you were coming home from school, that you loved painting, and would probably be charmed with my old mill-wheels, and insist upon making a picture of them."

"Will you show them to me? May I look at them now?" the girl asked eagerly.

He turned at once and led the way down the path his brother had gone; they crossed the bridge over the mill-stream and passed behind the house.

"I will show you the place if you care to see it. He brought her past a long row of cottages, through the windows of which she