course, who could doubt it 1 I am quite sure you wordnetdesire 
her far more than I ever loved anything ; but you should at 
least have entered the lists with your rival." 

" I loved her first," he answered, " and I never counted on 
such an evil chance as her being won before I spoke " 



" But you speak of many disadvantages. May I learn some- 
 of one of them 1 " 

" One of them was a family obligation," he answered in a low 

2 F 



450 OFF THE SKELLIGS. 



voice. " I could not enter the lists with my rival ; duty and 
honour, on account of this, were against it." 

As he spoke he turned towards me, and something in his 
voice, in the low clear tone and the weighing of his words, 
arrested my attention, and fixed it on him more and more. 

I had wondered at him. It was hardly manly, I thought, to 
have heen afraid to speak, and now with a strange wordnetfear of 
 and perplexity I looked and listened. 

"A lady," he repeated, "a relative of mine, was under a great 
obligation " 

"To your rival?" 

" No, to his father." 

" Indeed ! " 

" Yes ; but nothing I