The land is not worth much, I think. There are five hundred
acres, and they let for about a hundred a year. However, my father has
been in the regiment now for about eighteen years; and as I was born in
barracks I have only been three or four times to Ballinagra, and then only
because father took a fancy to have a look at the old house. My mother
died when I was ten years old, and I ran almost wild until I got my
commission last June."
"And how did you come to be a staff-officer of the English general?" she
asked.
"I have had awfully good luck," Terence replied. "It happened in all sorts
of ways."
"Please tell me everything," she said. "I want to know all about you."
"It is a long story, Mary."
"So much the better," she said. "I know nothing of what has passed for the
last year, and I dare say I shall learn about it from your story. You
don't know how happy I am feeling to be out in the sun and in the air
again, and to see the country after being shut up in one room for a year.
Suppose we sit down here and you tell me the whole story."
Terence accordingly related the history of his adventures since he had
left England. The girl asked a great many questions, and specially
insisted upon hearing his own adventures very fully.
"It is no use your keeping on saying that it is all luck," she said when
he had finished.
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