lf and her
youngest daughter.

"Susy, darlin'," said she, "you see the happy pair before us; but why
is it, acushla, that my heart is sunk when I think of their marriage? Do
you hear that _say_? There's not a wave on it, but still it's angry, if
one can judge by its voice. Darlin' it's a bad sign, for the same
say isn't always so. Sometimes it is as asy as a sleepin' baby, and
sometimes, although its waves are quiet enough, it looks like a murderer
asleep. Now it breathes heavily avourneen, as if all was not right.
Susy, darlin', I'm afeard, I say, that it's a bad sign."

"Mother dear," replied Susy, "what makes you speak that way? Sure it
wouldn't be the little-sup o' punch that Felix made you take that 'ud
get into your head!"

"No, darlin'! Look at the pair before us; there they go, the pride, both
o' them, God knows, of the whole parish; but still when I think of the
bitterness of Felix's friends, Susy, I can't help being afeard. His
brother Hugh is a dark man, and his sister Maura is against it. God pity
them! It's a cruel world, acushla, when people like them can't do as
they'd wish to do. But, Susy, you're a child, and knows nothing at all
about it."

Felix and Alley walked on, unconscious of me ominous forebodings which
the superstition of the affectionate woman prompted her to utter. The
arrangements for their marriage were on that night concluded, and the
mother, after some feebly expressed misgivings, at which Felix and
Alley laughed heartily, was induced, to consent that on the third Sunday
following they should be joined in wedlock. Had Felix been disposed to
conceal his marriage from Hugh and Maura, at least until the eve of its
occurrence, the publishing of their banns in the chapel would have, of
course, disclosed it. When his sister heard that the arrangements
were completed, she poured forth a torrent of abuse against what she
considered the folly and simplicity of a mere boy, who allowed himself
to be caught in the snares of an artful girl, with nothing but a
handsome face to recommend her. Felix received all this with good humor,
and replied only in a strain of jocularity to every thing she said.

Hugh, on the other hand, contented himself with a single observation.
"Felix," said he, "I won't see you throw yourself away upon a girl that
is no fit match for you. If you can't take care of yourself, I will.
Once for all, I tell you that this marriage must not take place."

As he uttered these wor