both joy and sorrow in these tears. I have
had a good family of childhre, an' a faithful wife; an' Mave, achora,
although time has laid his mark upon you as well as upon myself, and the
locks are gray that wor once as black as a raven: yet, Mave, I seen the
day, an' there's many livin' to prove it--ay, Mave, I seen the day
when you wor worth lookin' at--the wild rose of Lisbuie she was called,
Docthor. Well, Mave, I hope that my eyes may be closed by the hands
I loved an' love so well--an' that's your own, _agrab machree_, an'
Denis's."

"Whisht, Denis asthore," said Mave, wiping her eyes, "I hope I'll never
see that day. Afther seein' Denis here, what we all hope him to be, the
next thing I wish is, that I may never live to see my husband taken away
from me, acushla; no, I hope God will take me to himself before that
comes."

There is something touching in the burst of pathetic affection which
springs strongly from the heart of a worthy couple, when, seated among
their own family, the feelings of the husband and father, the wife and
mother, overpower them. In this case, the feeling is always deep in
proportion to the strength and purity of domestic affection; still it is
checked by the melancholy satisfaction that our place is to be filled by
those who are dear to us.

"But now," said the priest, "that the scent lies still warm, let me ask
you, Dionysius, how the Bishop came to understand the compactum?"

"I really cannot undertake to say," replied Denis; "but if any man has
an eye like a _basileus_ he has. On finding, sir, that there was some
defect in my responsive powers, he looked keenly at me, closing his
piercing-eyes a little, and inquired upon what ground I had presented
myself as a candidate. I would have sunk the compactum altogether, but
for the eye. I suspended and hesitated a little, and at length told him
that there was an understanding--a--a--kind of--in short, he squeezed
the whole secret out o' me gradationally. You know the result!"

"Ah, Dionysius, you are yet an unfledged bird; but it matters little.
All will be rectified soon."

"Arrah, Dinis," inquired his mother, "was it only takin' a rise out of
us you wor all the time? Throth, myself's not the betther of the fright
you put me into."

"No," replied Denis, "the Bishop treated me harshly, I thought: he said
I was not properly fit. 'You might pass,' said he, 'upon a particular
occasion, or under peculiar circumstances; but it will take at