ady was to be
spaking to Myles that way; and he would never think of doing so av
you didn't be putting him up to it."

"And that's little like you, Feemy, to be saying that to your priest;
telling me I put the young men up to be quarrelling: it's to save
you many a heart-ache, and many a sting of sorrow and remorse; it's
to prevent all the evil of unlawful love--bad blood, and false
looks--that I've come here on a most disagreeable and thankless
errand; and now you tell me I'd be putting the young men up to
fight!"

Feemy had, by this time, become sullen, but she didn't dare go
farther with her priest.

"I didn't say you'd be making them fight, Father John. I only said,
if you told Thady not to be meddling with Myles, why, in course, they
wouldn't be quarrelling."

"And how could I tell a brother not to meddle with his sister's
honour, and reputation, and happiness? But now, Feemy, I'll propose
another plan to you. If you don't think my advice on such a subject
likely to be good--and very likely it isn't, for you see I never had
a lover of my own--what do you say to your speaking to your friend,
Mrs. McKeon, about it? Or, if you like, I'll speak to her; and then,
perhaps, you won't be against taking her advice on the subject.
Supposing, now, she was to speak to Captain Ussher--from herself, you
know, as your friend--do you think he'd love the girl that's to be
his wife worse for having a friend that was willing to stand in the
place of a mother to her, when she'd none of her own?"

"Why, I do think it would look odd, Mrs. McKeon meddling with it."

"Well, then, Feemy, what in the blessed name do you mean to do, if
you won't let any of your friends act for you? I think you must be
very much afraid of this lover of yours, when you won't allow any one
speak to him about you. Are you afraid of him, Feemy?"

"Afraid of him?--no, of course I'm not afraid of him; but men don't
like to be bothered about such things."

"That's very true; men, when they're false, and try to deceive young
girls, and are playing their own wicked game with them, do not like
to be bothered about such things. But I never heard of an honest man,
who really wanted to marry a young woman, being bothered by getting
her friends' consent. And you think, then, things should go on just
as they are?"

"Now, Father John, only you've been scolding me so much, I'd have
told you before. I mane to spake to Myles myself to-night, just to
arrange things;