n?"

Poor Denis was giving signs of having had enough of the amusement.
There was a tolerably large fire on the hearth, near which he had
been destined to perform his gyrations--which, if not very graceful,
had, at any rate, been sufficiently active; and the exertion, heat,
and dust were showing plainly on his shining countenance.

"Ah! Mr. McGovery," panted Biddy, "shure you're not down yet, and I
only jist begun!"

"Indeed, then, Biddy, I am, and quite enough I've had, too, for one
while. Here, Corney, come and take my place;" and Denis deposited a
penny in a little wooden dish by the piper's side.

"By dad, Denis," said Corney, "you'll sleep to-night, any ways--to
look at you."

"That's jist what he won't, then; for it'll be morning before he's in
bed, and Mary'll have too much to say to him, when he is there, to
let him sleep."

"Never mind, boys; do you dance, and I'll get myself a dhrink, for
I'm choked with the dust;--and here's Mr. Thady. Why, Mr. Thady, why
didn't you come in time for the supper, then?"

Just as Denis McGovery gave over dancing, Thady entered the house,
having anything but a wedding countenance. He had been, since the
time we parted from him after his interview with Keegan, lying in the
stable, smoking. He had eaten nothing, but had remained meditating
over the different things which conspired to make his heart sad.

His father's state--the impossibility of carrying on the war any
longer against the enmity of Flannelly and Keegan--his own forlorn
prospects--the insult and blow he had just received from the
overbearing, heartless lawyer--but, above all, Feemy's condition, and
his fears respecting her, were too much for him to bear. After his
sister and Captain Ussher had left Ballycloran, he had gone up to the
house and had swallowed a couple of glasses of raw whiskey, to drive,
as he said to himself, the sorrow out of his heart; and he had now
come down to seek the friends whom Brady had recommended to him,
and determined, at whatever cost, to revenge himself, by their aid,
against Keegan, for the insults he had heaped upon him, and against
Ussher for the name which, he believed, he had put upon his sister.

It was with these feelings and determinations that Thady had come
down to McGovery's wedding; and, as he entered the room, Ussher and
Feemy were just standing up to dance.

CHAPTER XIII.

HOW THE WEDDING PARTY WAS CONCLUDED.

When Thady entered the room where the par