turn. At length
he went to his father's sleeping-room, and informed him of the message
he had sent through Flanagan to Una.

"I will sleep in the barn to-night, father," he added; "an' never fear,
let us talk as we may, but we'll be up early enough in the morning,
plase God. I couldn't sleep, or go to sleep, till I hear what news he
brings back to us; so do you rise and secure the door, an' I'll make my
shakedown wid Bartle this night."

The father who never refused him anything unpecuniary (if we may be
allowed the word), did as the son requested him, and again went to bed,
unconscious of the thundercloud which was so soon to burst upon them
both.

Bartle, however, at length returned, and Connor had the satisfaction
of hearing that his faithful Una would meet him the next night, if
possible, at the hour of twelve o'clock, in her father's haggard. Her
parents, it appeared, had laid an injunction upon her never to see him
again; she was watched, too, and, unless when the household were
asleep, she found it altogether impracticable to effect any appointment
whatsoever with her lover. She could not even promise with certainty to
meet him on that night, but she desired him to come, and if she failed
to be punctual, not to leave the place of appointment for an hour. After
that, if she appeared not, then he was to wait no longer. Such was the
purport of the message which Flanagan delivered him.

Flanagan was the first up the next morning, for the purpose of keeping
an appointment which he had with Biddy Neil, whom we have already
introduced to the reader. On being taxed with meanness by this weak but
honest creature, for having sought service with the man who had ruined
his family, he promised to acquaint her with the true motive which had
induced him to enter into Fardorougha's employment. Their conversation
on this point, however, was merely a love scene, in which Bartle
satisfied the credulous girl, that to an attachment for herself of
some months' standing, might be ascribed his humiliation in becoming a
servant to the oppressor and destroyer of his house. He then passed from
themselves and their prospects to Connor and Una O'Brien, with whose
attachment for each other, as the reader knows, he was first made
acquainted by his fellow-servant.

"It's terrible, Biddy," said he, "to think of the black and revengeful
heart that Connor bears to Bodagh Buie and his family merely bekase they
rufuse to let him marry Una. I'm