“We have everything to be thankful for,” Mrs. Davenant said, when the stories on both sides had been told, “and it seems to me that it is, to no slight extent, due to Walter that we have passed so well through the last two troubled years.  It was Jabez Whitefoot who first stood our friend, and who saved the castle from being burned, and his goodwill was earned by Walter’s friendship with his son.  Then Mr. Conyers stood between us and the council, who would certainly have confiscated everything, had it not been for him.  And, although he always expressed himself as greatly indebted to you also, he said that, so far as he understood from his wife, it was to Walter’s foresight and arrangement that his wife and daughter owed their rescue.

“How was it that Walter was so forward in the matter, Fergus?”

“Walter was perhaps more particularly interested in the matter than I was,” Captain Davenant said, with a smile.  “His thoughts were running in that direction.”

Walter coloured up, and Mrs. Davenant, who was looking at him with some surprise, at her husband’s words, broke into a laugh.

“You don’t mean to say, Walter, that you have been falling in love, at your age?”

“You forget, dear,” Captain Davenant said, coming to Walter’s rescue, “that Walter is no longer a boy.  Three years of campaigning have made a man of him, and, I venture to think, an earnest and thoughtful one.  He is, it is true, only nineteen, but he has seen as much, and gone through as much, as men double his age.  He has, upon several occasions, evinced an amount of coolness and judgment in danger which has earned him the approbation even of General Sarsfield, a man not easily satisfied.”

“I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, Walter,” Mrs. Davenant said; “but of course, it is difficult for me, at first, to realize that while you have been away you have changed from a boy into a man.”

“I don’t mind, mother dear,” Walter said, “and you can laugh at me as much as you like.”

“And is there anything in what your father says?” Mrs. Davenant asked, as she passed her hand fondly over Walter’s head, as he sat on a low stool beside her.

“Yes, mother,” he answered manfully.  “I am engaged to Claire Conyers.  I have her mother’s consent, but what Mr. Conyers will think about it, I don’t know.  He must know long before this, for Mrs. Conyers said that she should tell him, as soon as he joined them in England.”

Mrs. Davenant leaned over, and kissed her son.

“The Conyers are of good family,” old Mrs. Davenant said, “although they did come over with Cromwell.  I do not think that is any objection to a son of our house marrying into theirs.”

Captain Davenant laughed.

“No objection at all, on our side, mother.  Any objection is likely to be on the other side, not on the ground of family, but on that of property.  Claire Conyers is one of the richest heiresses in Ireland, while Walter’s inheritance can scarcely be termed extensive.”