‘Not for ever, I hope, Miss Skimpsalt,’ said Letitia; ‘but, Lesbie, you must get your uncle to step with you over the puddle one day to see me, and we'll all run up to the Falls for a tryst. But, listen now, to be practical, I've an idea to draw out the parting. Why shouldn’t you and your uncle just go with me for a short trip as far as Queenstown? You’d see something of the south of Ireland, and you could run back by Dublin and Holyhead. I guess it’s no use asking you, Rose?’
‘Thanks no, Letitia, "’m a shocking sailor. Folkestone to Boulogne’s more than enough for me.’
Lesbia approved, and on reaching home at once mentioned the proposal to her uncle, who fell in with it readily. After some consultation, it was settled that his niece and he should accompany Miss Blemmyketts as far as the Irish coast, the two elder ladies not caring to face a sea passage merely for pleasure. Eventually the three went to London, and after staying a night at the Great Western Hotel, Paddington, ran down by the morning express on that line to Milford Haven, where they put up at the Railway Hotel, New Milford, the Cork steamer not leaving until the following evening. They had rather a rough passage by her, but none of our party suffered from sea-sickness or looked any the worse when they met in the saloon for breakfast; the vessel having been delayed in departure, the captain said it would be past noon before they could make Cork Harbour.
When they met on deck afterwards, there was some fog, and the Irish coast loomed dark through it, the great waves lashing up fiercely against rock-bound islets.
‘What a forbidding country!’ Lesbia said to her friend. ‘It suggests to my mind that horrid name of the Dark and Bloody Land.’
‘No,’ answered Letitia; ‘that name’s our property, and I shall bring an action against you if you steal it. It was
