the other twirling his watch-key as rapidly
as he could. The mother, in the meantime, had thrown herself into a
chair, and gave way to a violent fit of grief.

"And you have this from Una's own lips?"

"Indeed, father, I have; and it is much to her credit that she was
candid enough to place such confidence in her brother."

"Pledged and promised to one another. Bridget, who could believe this?"

"Believe it! I don't believe it--it's only a schame of the hussy to get
him. Oh, thin, Queen of Heaven this day, but it's black news to us!"

"John," said the father, "tell Una to come down to us."

"Father, I doubt that's rather a trying task for her. I wish, you
wouldn't insist."

"Go off, sir; she must come down immediately, I'll have it from her own
lips, too."

Without another word of remonstrance the son went to bring her down.
When the brother and sister entered the room, O'Brien still paced the
floor. He stood, and, turning his eyes upon his daughter with severe
displeasure, was about to speak, but he appeared to have lost the power
of utterance; and, after one or two ineffectual attempts, the big tears
fairly rolled down his cheeks.

"See, see," said the mother, "see what you have brought us to. Is it
thrue that you're promised to Fardorougha's son?"

Una tottered over to a chair, and the blood left her cheeks; her lips
became dry, and she gasped for breath.

"Why, don't you think it worth your while to answer me?" continued the
mother.

The daughter gave a look of deep distress and supplication at her
brother; but when she perceived her father in tears, her head sank down
upon her bosom.

"What! what! Una," exclaimed the Bodagh, "Una--" But ere he could
complete the question, the timid creature fell senseless upon the floor.

For a long time she lay in that friendly trance, for such, in truth, it
was to a delicate being, subjected to an ordeal so painful as that she
was called upon to pass through. We have, indeed, remarked that there
is in the young, especially in those of the softer sex, a feeling of
terror, and shame, and confusion, when called upon by their parents to
disclose a forbidden passion, that renders its avowal perhaps the most
formidable task which the young heart can undergo. It is a fearful trial
for the youthful, and one which parents ought to conduct with surpassing
delicacy and tenderness, unless they wish to drive the ingenuous spirit
into the first steps of falsehood and deceit.