'll be at the wedding, eh? and,
Pat, you must make them bring Captain Ussher. Mrs. McGovery, as is to
be, must have the Captain at her wedding; you'll be there, Thady?"

"Oh, Pat's been telling me about it, and I suppose I and Feemy must
go down. If Brady chooses to ask the Captain, I've nothing to say;
it's not for me to ask him, and, as he'd only be quizzing at all he
saw, I think he might as well be away."

"Ah! Thady, but you never think of your priest; think of the
half-crown it would be to me. Never mind, Pat, you ask him; he'll
come anywhere, where Miss Feemy is likely to be; eh, Thady?"

"Then I wish Feemy had never set eyes on him, Father John; and can't
you be doing better than coupling her name with that of his, that
way? and he a black ruffian and a Protestant, and filling her head up
with nonsense: I thought you had more respect for the family. Well,
Pat, jist go down to them boys, and do as I was telling you,"--and
Pat walked off.

"And what more respect for the family could I have, Thady, than to
wish to see your sister decently married?" and Father John turned
round to walk back with young Macdermot the way he was going, "what
better respect could I have? If Captain Ussher were not a proper
young man in general, your father and you, Thady, wouldn't be letting
him be so much with Feemy; and, now we're on it, if you did not mean
it to be a match, and if you did not mean they should marry, why have
you let him be so much at Ballycloran, seeing your father doesn't
meddle much in anything now?"

"That's just the reason, Father John, I couldn't be seeing all day
who was in it and who was not; besides, Feemy's grown now; she's no
mother, and must learn to care for herself."

"No, Thady, she's no mother; and no father, poor girl, that can do
much for her; and isn't that the reason you should care the more for
her? Mind, I'm not blaming you, Thady, for I know you do care for
her; and you only want to know how to be a better brother to her; and
what could she do better than marry Captain Ussher?"

"But isn't he a black Protestant, Father John; and don't the country
hate him for the way he's riding down the poor?"

"He may be Protestant, Thady, and yet not 'black.' Mind, I'm not
saying I wouldn't rather see Feemy marry a good Catholic; but if
she's set her heart on a Protestant, I wouldn't have you be against
him for that: that's not the way to show your religion; it's only
nursing your pride; and sure, m