med it, now even that he was alone.
With Thady this was a sign that his heart was very full indeed; and
so it was, full almost to breaking.

He had come there eager with two high feelings, love for his
sister, real fond brotherly affection, and love and respect for his
family name; he had wished to protect the former from insult and
unhappiness, and to sustain the fallen respectability of the latter;
and he had only been scoffed at and upbraided by the sister he loved.
For he did love her, though little real communication had ever passed
between them; he had always supposed that she loved him; he had taken
it for granted, and had asked for no demonstrative affection; but her
manner and her words now cut him very deep. He was not aware how very
uncouth his own manner had been; that instead of reasoning with her
gently he had begun by sneering at her lover, that he had taken the
very course to offend her self-love, and that therefore Feemy was
quite as convinced at the end of the meeting that she had a right to
be angry, as he was that he was the injured party.

At any rate, there he stood perfectly baffled. His object had been to
advise her, if Captain Ussher did not at once declare his purpose to
her family, to put a stop to his further visits; and if she refused
to comply with his advice, to tell her that he should himself ask
Captain Ussher his intentions, and that if they were not such as he
approved, he should inform him that he was no longer welcome at
Ballycloran.

This had seemed, though disagreeable, straightforward and easy enough
before the meeting; and now that it was over he could not think why
he had not said exactly what he had come there to say. To give him
his due, he blamed himself as much as he did his sister; he was very
unhappy about it all, but he could not think how he had been so very
stupid.

Had he lived more in the world, he would have had recourse to the
common resort in cases where speech is difficult; he would have
written a letter to his sister. But this never occurred to him; even
had it done so, Thady's epistolary powers were very small, and his
practice very limited; a memento to the better sort of tenants, as
to their "thrifle of rint," or a few written directions to Pat Brady,
about seizing crops and driving pigs, was its extent; and these were
written on pieces of coarse paper, which had been ruled for accounts,
and were smeared rather than fastened with very much salivated
wafe