e would nurse me than anybody else, barring my
mother; and, afther him, you, Nogher.'"

These last observations of his servant probed the heart of the old man
to the quick; but the feeling which they excited was a healthy one; or,
rather, the associations they occasioned threw Fardorougha's mind upon
the memory of those affections, which avarice had suppressed, without
destroying.

"I loved him, Nogher," said he, deeply agitated; "Oh none but God knows
how I loved him, although I didn't an' couldn't bring myself to show
it at the time. There was something upon me; a curse, I think, that
prevented me; an' now that I love him as a father ought to do, I will
not have him. Oh, my son, my son, what will become of me, after you?
Heavenly Father, pity me and support me! Oh, Connor, my son, my son,
what will become of me?"

He then sat down on the bed, and, placing his hands upon his face, wept
long and bitterly. His grief now, however, was natural, for, during the
most violent of his paroxysms in the preceding hour, he shed not a tear;
yet now they ran down his cheeks, and through his fingers, in torrents.

"Cry on, cry on," said Nogher, wiping his own eyes; "it will lighten
your heart; an' who knows but it's his mother's prayers that brought
you to yourself, and got this relief for you. Go, Biddy," said he, in
a whisper, to the servant-maid, "and tell the mistress to come here;
she'll know best how to manage him, now that he's a little calm."

"God be praised!" ejaculated Honor, on seeing him weep; "these tears
will cool your head, avourneen; an' now, Fardorougha, when you're tired
cryin', if you take my advice, you'll go to your knees an' offer up five
pathers, five Aves, an' a creed, for the grace of the Almighty to direct
and strengthen you; and thin, afther that, go to bed, as I sed, an'
you'll find how well you'll be afther a sound sleep."

"Honor," replied her husband, "avourneen machree, I think you'll save
your husband's sowl yet, undhor my merciful Saviour."

"Your son, undher the same merciful God, will do it. Your heart was
hard and godless, Fardorougha, and, surely, if Connor's death 'll be the
manes of savin' his father's sowl, wouldn't it be a blessin' instead
of a misfortune? Think of it in that light, Fardorougha, and turn your
heart to God. As for Connor, isn't it a comfort to know that the breath
won't be out of his body till he's a bright angel in heaven?"

The old man wiped his eyes and knelt down,