dge me, I would rather beg my bread with you as an honest man, true,
as I said awhile ago, to your God and your religion, than have an estate
by your side, if you could prove false to either."

The vehemence with which she uttered these sentiments, and the fire
which animated her whole mind and manner, caused them to pause again,
and Bryan, to whom this high enthusiasm was perfectly new, now saw with
something like wonder, that the tears were flowing down her cheeks.

He caught her hand and said "My own darling Kathleen, the longer I know
you the more I see your value; but make your mind easy; when I become a
traitor to either God or my religion, you may renounce me!"

"Don't be surprised at these tears, Bryan; don't, my dear Bryan; for you
may look upon them as a proof of how much I love you, and what I would
feel if the man I love should do anything unworthy, or treacherous, to
his religion or his suffering country."

"How could I," he replied, "with my own dear Kathleen, that will be a
guardian angel to me, to advise and guide me? Well, now that your mind
is aisy, Kathleen, mine I think is brighter, too. I have no doubt but
we'll be happy yet--at least I trust in God we will. Who knows but
everything may prove betther than our expectations; and as you say, they
may make a poor man of me, and ruin me, but so long as I can keep my
good name, and am true to my country, and my God, I can never complain."

CHAPTER XVII.--Interview between Hycy and Finigan

--The Former Propones for Miss Clinton--A love Scene

Hycy, after his conversation with Bryan M'Mahon, felt satisfied that he
had removed all possible suspicion from himself, but at the same time he
ransacked his mind in order to try who it was that had betrayed him to
Bryan. The Hogans he had no reason to suspect, because from experience
he knew them to be possessed of a desperate and unscrupulous fidelity,
in excellent keeping with their savage character; and to suspect Teddy
Phats, was to suppose that an inveterate and incurable smuggler would
inform upon him. After a good deal of cogitation, he at length came
to the conclusion that the school-master, Finigan, must have been
the traitor, and with this impression he resolved to give that worthy
personage a call upon his way home. He found him as usual at full work,
and as usual, also, in that state which is commonly termed half drunk, a
state, by the way, in which the learned pedagogue generally contrived