same time feared, that with the strong influence
Ussher had over her, he might easily persuade her to leave her home,
partly by promising at some early time to marry her, and partly
by threatening her with desertion. He thought that if she were at
present domiciled at Mrs. McKeon's, Ussher might then be brought to
hear reason, and be made to understand that if he was not contented
to propose for and marry Feemy, in a proper decent manner, he must
altogether drop her acquaintance.

He was not far wrong in the estimate he formed of both their
characters. Though Ussher loved Feemy, perhaps as well as he was ever
likely to love any woman, circumstances might easily have induced him
to give her up. It was the impediments in the way, and the opposition
he now met with, which would give the affair a fresh interest in his
eyes. He certainly did not intend to marry the poor girl; had she had
sufficient tact, she might, perhaps, have persuaded him to do so; but
her fervent love and perfect confidence, though very gratifying to
his vanity, did not inspire him with that feeling of respect which
any man would wish to have for the girl he was going to marry. I do
not say that his premeditated object had been to persuade her to
leave her home, but Father John was not far wrong in fearing, that
unless steps were taken to prevent it, it would be the most probable
termination to the whole affair.

With regard to Feemy, he was quite right in thinking that her love of
Ussher was strong enough to induce her to take almost any step that
he might desire; and that that love, joined to her own obstinacy and
determined resistance to the advice of those to whom she should have
listened, was such as to render it most unlikely that she should be
induced to give him up; but though he so well understood the weakness
of her character, he was not aware of, for he had had no opportunity
of trying, its strength.

As long as Feemy had her own way, as at the present time she had,
she would, as we have seen, yield entirely to her strong love; but
this was not all; had circumstances enabled her friends to remove her
entirely out of Ussher's way, and had they done so, her love would
have remained the same; her passion was so strong, that it could not
be weakened or strengthened by absence or opposition. When Father
John calculated that by good management Ussher might be brought to
relinquish Feemy, he was right, but he was far from right, when he
thought