be
no wife to you to-night, and that's as true as God's in heaven."

"Peter," said his mother, "don't trouble her to-night. There has been
too much dancing and drinking."

"It's a hard thing ... shut out of his wife's room."

"Peter, don't vex her to-night. Don't hammer her door any more."

"Didn't she acquie-esh? Mother, you have always been agin me. Didn't
she acquie-esh?"

"Oh, Peter, why do you say I'm agin you?"

"Did you hear her say that I was drunk. If you tell me I'm drunk I'll
say no more. I'll acquie-esh."

"Peter, you must go to sleep."

"Yes, go to sleep. ... I want to go to sleep, but she won't open the
door."

"Peter, never mind her."

"It isn't that I mind; I'm getting sleepy, but what I want to know,
mother, before I go to bed, is if I'm drunk. Tell me I'm not drunk on
my wedding night, and, though Kate--and I'll acquie-esh in all that may
be put upon me."

He covered his face with his hands and his mother begged him not to
cry. He became helpless, she put a blanket under his head and covered
him with another blanket, and went up the ladder and lay down in the
hay. She asked herself what had she done to deserve this trouble? and
she cried a great deal; and the poor, hapless old woman was asleep in
the morning when Peter stumbled to his feet. And, after dipping his
head in a pail of water, he remembered that the horses were waiting for
him in the farm. He walked off to his work, staggering a little, and as
soon as he was gone Kate drew back the bolt of the door and came into
the kitchen.

"I'm going, mother," she called up to the loft.

"Wait a minute, Kate," said Mrs. M'Shane, and she was half way down the
ladder when Kate said:--

"I can't wait, I'm going."

She walked up the road to her mother's, and she hardly saw the fields
or the mountains, though she knew she would never look upon them again.
And her mother was sweeping out the house. She had the chairs out in
the pathway. She had heard that the rector was coming down that
afternoon, and she wanted to show him how beautifully clean she kept
the cabin.

"I've come, mother, to give you this," and she took the wedding ring
off her finger and threw it on the ground. "I don't want it; I shut the
door on him last night, and I'm going to America to-day. You see how
well the marriage that you and the priest made up together has turned
out."

"Going to America," said Mrs. Kavanagh, and it suddenly occurred to her
that Kate might be