, Peter, I just took a walk that way myself, and, as I surrounded
the old house where your uncle had taken up his quarters, who should I
meet but the little girl, Ella Flanagan, who was in his service; and I
said to myself, `There's two ways of obtaining things in this world,
one is for love, and the other is for money.' The O'Briens are better
off in the first article than in the last, as most of their countrymen
are, so I've been spending it very freely in your service, Peter.

"`Sure,' says I, `you are the little girl that my eyes were ever
looking upon when last I was this way.'

"`And who are you?' says she.

"`Lieutenant O'Brien, of His Majesty's service, just come home for a
minute to look out for a wife,' says I; `and it's one about your make,
and shape, and discretion, that would please my fancy.'

"And then I praised her eyes, and her nose, and her forehead, and so
downwards, until I came to the soles of her feet; and asked her leave
to see her again, and when she would meet me in the wood and tell me
her mind. At first, she thought (sure enough) that I couldn't be in
earnest, but I swore by all the saints that she was the prettiest girl
in the parts--and so she is altogether--and then she listened to my
blarney. The devil a word did I say about your uncle or your aunt, or
Father McGrath, that she might not suspect, for I've an idea that
they're all in the story. I only talked about my love for her pretty
self, and that blinded her, as it will all women, 'cute as they may
be.

"And now, Peter, it's three weeks last Sunday, that I've been
bespeaking this poor girl for your sake, and my conscience tells me
that it's not right to make a poor cratur fond of me, seeing as how
that I don't care a fig for her in the way of a wife, and in any other
way it would be the ruin of the poor thing. I have spoken to Father
McGrath on the subject, who says `that we may do evil that good may
come, and, that if she had been a party to the deceit, it's nothing
but proper that she should be punished in this world, and that will,
perhaps, save her in the next;' still I don't like it, Peter, and it's
only for you among the living that I'd do such a thing; for the poor
creature now hangs upon me so fondly and talks about the wedding day;
and tells me long stories about the connections which have taken place
between the O'Flanagans and the O'Briens, times