er, I am not well rid of her, for there's no other
woman in the world for me except her that's gone. Has she gone with Pat
Connex?"

"No, he said nothing about that, and it was he who brought the message."

"I've no one, mother, to blame but myself. I was drunk last night, and
how could she let a drunken fellow like me into her room."

He went out to the backyard, and his mother heard him crying till it
was time for him to go back to work.

V

As he got up to go to work he caught sight of Biddy M'Hale coming up
the road; he rushed past her lest she should ask him what he was crying
about, and she stood looking after him for a moment, and went into the
cabin to inquire what had happened.

"Sure she wouldn't let her husband sleep with her last night," said
Mrs. M'Shane, "and you'll be telling the priest that. It will be well
he should know it at once."

Biddy would have liked to have heard how the wedding party had met Pat
Connex on the road, and what had happened after, but the priest was
expecting her, and she did not dare to keep him waiting much longer.
But she was not sorry she had been delayed, for the priest only wanted
to get her money to mend the walls of the old church, and she thought
that her best plan would be to keep him talking about Kate and Peter.
He was going to America to-morrow or the day after, and if she could
keep her money till then it would be safe.

His front door was open, he was leaning over the green paling that
divided his strip of garden from the road, and he looked very cross
indeed.

She began at once:--

"Sure, your reverence, there's terrible work going on in the village,
and I had to stop to listen to Mrs M'Shane. Kate Kavanagh, that was,
has gone to America, and she shut her door on him last night, saying he
was drunk."

"What's this you're telling me?"

"If your reverence will listen to me--"

"I'm always listening to you, Biddy M'Hale. Go on with your story."

It was a long time before he fully understood what had happened, but at
last all the facts seemed clear, and he said:--

"I'm expecting Pat Connex."

Then his thoughts turned to the poor husband weeping in the backyard,
and he said:--

"I made up this marriage so that she might not go away with Pat Connex."

"Well, we've been saved that," said Biddy.

"Ned Kavanagh's marriage was bad enough, but this is worse. It is no
marriage at all."

"Ah, your reverence, you musn't be taking it to heart. If the