that Feemy could be taught to forget him. She literally cared
for no one but him; her life had been so dull before she knew him,
and so full of interest since--he so nearly came up to her _beau
ideal_ of what a man should be, for she had seen, or at any rate
had known, no better--he so greatly excelled her brother and father,
and was so much better looking than young Cassidy, and so much
more spirited than Frank McKeon, that to her young heart he was all
perfection.

She had lately been vexed, tormented, and even frightened; but her
fear was merely that Ussher did not love her as she did him--that
he might be made to leave her; and she was learning to hate her
brother for opposing, as she would have said, the only source of her
happiness. As to being induced by prudence or propriety to be cool
to her lover--as to taking the first step herself towards making a
breach between them--nothing that her brother or the priest had said,
nothing that they could ever say, could either make her think of
doing so, or think that it could be advisable, or in any way proper,
that she should do so. For this strong feeling Father John did not
give our heroine credit; but he still felt that she was headstrong
enough to make it a very difficult task for him to manage her in any
way. But as his charity was unbounded, so were his zeal and courage
great.

His present plan was to induce his friend, Mrs. McKeon, to ask Feemy
to come over and spend some time with her and her daughters at
Drumsna. There were difficulties in this; for, in the first place,
although Feemy and the Miss McKeons had been very good friends, still
the reports which had lately been afloat, both about her and the
affairs of her family, might make Mrs. McKeon, a prudent woman,
unwilling to comply with the priest's wishes--though indeed it was
not often that she contradicted him in anything; then, after he had
talked Mrs. McKeon over, when he had aroused her charitable feelings
and excited the good nature, which, to tell the truth, was never very
dormant in her bosom, he had the more difficult task of persuading
Feemy to accept the invitation. Not that under ordinary circumstances
she would not be willing enough to go to Mrs. McKeon's, but
at present she would be likely to suspect a double meaning in
everything. Father John had already mentioned Mrs. McKeon's name to
her, in reference to her attachment to Ussher; and it was more than
probable that if he now brought her a