to
do, for my soul's sick within me, with all the throubles that are on
me. An' av it warn't for Feemy then, Father John, bad as I know I've
been to her, laving her all alone there at Ballycloran, with her
novels and her trash,--av it warn't for her, it's little I'd mind
about Ballycloran. There is them still as wouldn't let the ould man
want his stirabout, and his tumbler of punch, bad as they all are to
us; and for me, I'd sthrike one blow for the counthry, and then, if I
war hung or shot, or murthered any way, devil a care. But I couldn't
bear to see the house taken off her, and she to lose the rispect of
the counthry entirely, and the name of Macdermot still on her!"

"Oh, nonsense, Thady, about blows for your country, and getting hung
and murthered. You're very fond of being hung in theory, but wait
till you've tried it in practice, my boy."

"May be I may! there be many things to try me."

"Oh, bother Thady; stop with your nonsense now. Go up to your sister,
and have your talk well out with her, and then come down to me. Judy
McCan has got the best half of a goose, and there's as fine a bit of
cold ham--or any way there ought to be--as ever frightened a Jew; and
when you get a tumbler of punch in you, and have told me all you've
said to Feemy, and all Feemy's said to you, why, then you can begin
to dun in earnest, and we'll talk over how we'll make out the rint."

"No, Father John, I'd rather not be coming down."

"But it's yes, Father John, and I'm not saying what you'd rather do,
but showing you your duty; so at five, Thady, you'll be down, and see
what sort of a mess Judy makes of the goose."

There was no gainsaying this, so Thady started off for Ballycloran,
and Father John once more set about performing his parochial duties.

CHAPTER VI.

THE BROTHER AND SISTER.

At the time that the priest and young Macdermot were talking over
Feemy's affairs at the cottage, she and her lover were together at
Ballycloran.

Nothing that her brother or Father John had said about her, either
for her or against, would give a fair idea of her character.

She was not naturally what is called strong-minded; but her feelings
and courage were strong, and they stood to her in the place of mind.

She would have been a fine creature had she been educated, but she
had not been educated, and consequently her ideas were ill-formed,
and her abilities were exercised in a wrong direction.

She was by far the most tal