f the
open face, a tenderness, moreover, in the blue eyes as they rested on
Roseen--which would seem to account for the fact that these former
playfellows were now lovers.

Roseen looked piteously at him, as he halted beside her, gazing with
alarm at the trace of tears which still remained on her face.

"Me grandfather wants me to get married to Mr. Quinn," she announced
briefly.

"God bless us!" ejaculated Mike, his cheeks growing pale beneath their
tan. "What did ye say, alanna?"

"I said I wouldn't," answered Roseen.

"That's me brave girl! I declare ye're afther givin' me such a fright,
I don't know whether I am on me head or on me heels. Was he goin' to
murther ye for that?"

"He was at first," replied the girl, "and then he began sayin'--Oh
dear, oh dear, me heart's broke!" She was sobbing now violently.

"Sure, what matther what he says?" cried Mike, much concerned. "Ye
have no call to be frettin' that way; let him say what he likes, bad
luck to him! Sure, ye won't be havin' Mr. Quinn, Roseen, will ye?"

"N--no," said Roseen. "Me grandfather says I'm bringin' his white
hairs with sorrow to the grave."

"Ah, the ould gomeril!" retorted Mike unsympathetically. "Bedad, what
hairs he has isn't white at all, but red as carrots! Don't ye be
listenin', Roseen, asthore. Sure, ye wouldn't marry ugly Mr. Quinn?"
he repeated anxiously.

"I would not," replied Roseen; "but I don't like me grandfather to be
talkin' that way. An'--an' his hair isn't that red, Mike," she added
reprovingly; "ye have no call to be sayin' it is."

"If I never said worse nor you have said yourself often an' often!"
retorted the lad. "Many's the time I heard ye at it."

"That was before I had sense," replied Roseen, a trifle loftily; "ye
have no call to be castin' that up at me now. Me an' me grandfather
has never fell out since I come here."

"Oh, that indeed," said Mike sarcastically; "ye're gettin' altogether
too good an' too grand. Hothen indeed, I may as well make up my mind
to it--ye'll be Mrs. Quinn before the year is out. Sure, what chanst
has a poor fellow the same as meself, wid the ould wans at home to
support as well as meself, when there's such a fine match as Mr. Quinn
to the fore! Och bedad! when ye're sittin' along wid him on your
side-car, ye'll never offer to throw so much as a look at poor Mike."

At this affecting picture Roseen wept more than ever, and brokenly
assured the honest fellow that not for all the Mis