CHAPTER II.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 22, 23 September 1887, Page 9

CHAPTER 11.

The next nigbt a yellow moon hung high over Bofin, gilding the spars of the Liverpool trader, rocking still in the harbour. The headlands lay like good-natured giants smiling in their dreams, and an ocean of silver glimmered out of the obscurity of space and washed their feet. Along the road to the North Beach a man was plodding with a parcel under his arm. 1 here were few in the island would walk abroad, alone, once the night had sat in, for the spiritual population of Bonn 13 eaid to outnumber those who are couuted in flesh and blood, and the night is the elfin day. Men and women shut themselves into their cabins at twilight and love not solitary walks. But Con Lavelle was one of the few. It is customary to bung a friend for support- upon the mission on which he was bent. Con had his reasons for going alone. His expedition was a forlorn one. Why should another behold his defeat ? Con Lavelle had loved Maureen ]Lacey long. Last night had shown him that if his chance were not speedily improved it would very quickly become nothing. The Widow Lacey smiled on him he knew, for she reckoned on Con's soft nature and Con's good farm to help her out of many of her difficulties. This was little, however, while Maureen was cold. Last night he had seen her melt and brighten, and though the change, he knew, had not been wrought hy him, his heart had so ached at her more than wonted beauty, that he could not, like a wise man, turn his face the other way and think of her no longer. No, he would have his chance out. He would offer her his love, and if she wouM not have that, he would bribe her with his comfortable house, his goodly land, and help and protection for her family. If Maureen could not give him her love, he would grieve ; but, if Maureen could be bought, he would buy her. This was the state of Con's mind when he lifted the Lacey "s latch. As ever, the place was lighted by the fire, and there was an air of hushand tidiness within that betokened expectation of something unusual. The children were all in bed, the house was swept, the bits of tins and crockeries were all straight on the humble dreeser, the few rude chairs were ranged with precision along by the walls. Maureen's Btepmother was dozing in her little straw chair in the warmest corner. Maureen stood on the hearth , in her work-a-day crimson petticoat and loose bodice of print, with the blaze playing over her pretty bare feet, not yet spoiled by exposure, and deepening the rose flush on her cheeks, and gilding the wilful ripples of her hair that would creep out and keep strayiDg about her forehead. Twice Maureen had slipped " down to the room," and pressed her face to the one little pane of the window, and peered forth at the night without, where the yellow moonlight fell rich and flat on the rugged causeway, and the silver Atlantic shifted and glimmered between the grey stone walls of the neighbouring cabins. And the last time she had withdiawn her face with a gesture of dismay. This was cot the shape she wanted (o see, this loose swinging figure coming along with its awkward shadow. Con lifted the latch and came in. The noise wakened the widow, who hailed him with glad surprise. " What can bring him to-night again ?" flashed through the minds of both the women, followed clso by the same surmise, only the latter was with one a hope, with the other a fear. Maureen's " Save ye, Con 1" was only a feeble echo of her stepmother's greeting, wrung from her by the absolute requirements of hospitality. Curiosity was quickly allayed, and hope and fear confirmed. Advancing to the dresser with a sheepish air, the visitor set down a bottle of whiskey, pipes, and tobacco. Thus his errand was at ouce declared. Con Lavelle had come "matchmaking." The stepmother rubbed her wasted hands with delight. " You're welcome, Con, agra, machree !" she said " Maureen, set out the table, an' fetch the glasses, an' fill the pipes." Maureen did as she was bidden, uncorked the bottle, and handed the glass, and kindled the pipe to her mother, all with a set defiance on her face, which did not escape the timorous suitor. " Yell be come on business, Con ?" began the widow. " Ay," said Con, blushing and fidgeting. " I come, Mrs. Lacey, to ask yer daughter for a wife. God sees I'll make her as good a hußband as iver laid all he had in a girl's lap and only axed for hersel' in return." " It's f brue for you, Con dear," said the stepmother. " Oh, an' ye have her with my heart's best wish. Come down, Maureen, and give yer han' to yer busbaud." Maureen had been standing, pale, over in the shadows, at the dresser. Now she moved down to the hearth. "Not my husband," Bhe eaid, " an' niver my husband, In my heart I'm thankful to ye, Con Lavelle, for thinkin' kindly of a poor girl like me, but I cannot take yer offer." "Good Lord, sich talk I" cried the widow, ennged. " Don't mind her, Con, asthore, it's only a way girls has, likin' to keep themsel's high, an' small blame to them 1 She'll be yours, niver fear, an' willin' an' plased on her weddin-day." " Mother," said Maureen, " where the use of talkin' this ways 1 Yer not my God, nor my maker, that ye have a right to han' over my soul an' body to this man or that man again my will. An' you, Con Lavelle, yer a dacent man, an' ye wouldn't be for takin' a girl to yer wife that had her heart set in one that wasn't you. I'm a pledged wife, an' as good as a wife this minit in the eyes of the Almighty above ; an' thrue and fast I'll stan'to my word, so help me Christ, my Saviour 1" Slowly, and with a stern reverence in her tone, Maureen uttered these last words, her eyes on the ground and her hands squeezed together. Con hung his head and hoped no more, and the stepmother rocked herself to and fro in her feebleness, and raged with disappointment. " You bould hizzy," she cried. " Oh, you bould, shameless hizzy, that's been decavin' me all this time ! Goin' jiggin to yer dances an' makin* yer matches, an' throwin' dust in the eyes of the poor sickly mother at home, Oh, you bad onnatural daughter."

" Aißy, aisy, Mrs. Lacey," put in soft-hearted Con. " Throth I'll net listen to that from ye. If Maureen cannot like me, I'll tell the truth o' her. She's the good hard-workin' daughter to you, whatever I" " Hould yer tongue 1" shrieked the passionate woman. " What do you know about it 1 Troth ye take yer answer kindly. It's always the likes of a soft fool like you that gets the worst of it while the world's goin' roun'. Oh, wirra, wirra, that iver I should rear eich a daughter I" Maureen stepped up to Con and put out her hand. '• I thank ye," she said, eagerly " for puttin' in that kind word for me. I hay« timed to do her biddin', an' God sacs it's her own fault that ite corns to this so soon. I'm rale grateful to ye, Con, an' if I could make two women o' mysel', wan o' me should be yer wife. Bein' only wan, I must go after my heart." Big tears swelled up in Con's eyes as he shook her hand and let it drop. " It's thrue for you, Maureen," was all he said. "Oh I" cried the stepmother, fiercely — " oh lif I could just get my tongue about that limb of the divil, Mike Tiernay " " God save all here I" said a hearty voice, as the latch was lifted and Mike himself stood amongst them. Maureen, blushing, fell back into the shadows and left the battle to him. " Lend us yer arm, Con," cried the stepmother, trying to stand. "Begone I" she shrieked, shaking her puny fist at Mike, "begone from my house, you thief, you beggar 1" " Troth, yer not well, Mrs. Lacey, dear," said Mike, " yer not well at all. An' it's Con's fault here for giviu' you too sthrong a taste o' this fine whiskey o1o 1 his, an' you so wake about the head. Sit down dow, Mrs. Lacey, asthore, an' rest yersel 1 a bit," he went on coaxingly, slipping her hand from Con's arm, settling her in her chair, and drawing a seat confidentially beside her. " An' feth ye may make yer mind aisy about thieves an* beggars, for there isn't a sowl of sich a crew in the house at all : sorra wan ; nor out bye neither, for the moon's as bright as daylight, an' I couldn't miss but see them if they were there." All this was poured forth in Mike's own rolling, coaxiug, devil, may-care tone, completely drowning any attempt of the widow's to finish her interrupted volley of abase, bhe sat grasping the sides of her chair, in silence, and mentally scratching his face. " Oh, the imperence of ye 1" she hissed between her teeth, at last, "to think to come round me with yer blarney. I know yer errand " "You do, Mrs. Lacey?" said Mike, " you know that Maureen " here his eyes deepened and flashed, and a smile overspread his brave face as be glanced at a shadowy corner opposite, " that Maureen has promised me her own sel' tor a wife gin this day year when I come home from my voyage ? Ye've heard of the sthrange vessel that's been lyin' below all week. Well, the captain is a dacent man, an' he's offered to take me with him in his ship, and promised to put me in a way of earnin' in a year as much money as'lldo all I'll want it to do. On this day twel'month I'll come back a well-to-do man, plase God, an, I'll buy the best holdin' in Bofin, 6ave an' exceptin' Con Lavelle's here. Maureen has give me her word to wait for me. An' that's my errand, to tell ye all this that's arranged betune us." This information of Mike'i threw a light on the widow's perplexity, and the storminess of her wrath became somewhat calmed. " Yell niver come back," she said, with a sneer, " wanst yer off out of Bofin with yer blarneyin' tongue an' yer roviu' ways, sorra fut will ye iver set in it again." " Don't say that, Mrs. Lacey," said Mike, gravely. " You musn't say tnat, an' me ready to swear the conthrairy." " Ay," she sneered again ; the likes o' yell swear to anything ; but who'll heed ye 1 I say it would bd better for Maureen to talce up at wanst with a dacant man like Con Lavelle there, sitting peaceable at home on his farm, than to be waitin' for year's till a rover like you takes the notion to turn up again from the other md o' the world. Which ye niver will." " Well, Mrs. Lacey," said Mike, drawing himself up, and speaking solemnly, " I'll give Mauraen her lave, full and tree, to marry Con Lavelle come this day year, if I be not here to claim her first mysel'." " Ay," said Maureen, looking suddenly down from the shadows ; " an' I'll give my word full and free to marry Con Lavelle come this day year if Mike be not here to claim me first." " Yell swear that ?" said the stepmother. " Ay, we'll swear it both if you like," said Mike, smiling proudly down on Maureen. " He's ready enough to han' you over, Maureen," said the widow, with anDther of her sneers. " Yell be feared to do the same by him I'm thinkin'." Maureen made no reply, but slipping her hand out of Mike's went over to the dresser and reached up for something, to a little cracked cup on the shelf. " Here's two rings," she said, coming back to the hearth, " wan I got on the lastfair day, an' the other I got last night in Biddy Prendergast'o cake. There's for you, Con, and there's for you, Mike. Wan o' you men'll put wan o' them rings on my finger come this day year ; Con, if I'm left for him ; Mike, if he's home in time. This I swear, mother, in spite 0' yer tants, an' by the Blessed Vargin I'll keep my oath I" A silence fell on the group. The blaze of the fire dropped down, and a shadow covered the hearth. A momentary cloud passed over Mike's proud face in the flush of its rash happy confidence. Was it a whispered reminder of the perils that beset the sailor abroad on the seas— of storms, of great calms, of ships drifted out of their tracks ? But Mike was not one to fret his mind about shadows. " Yell dhrink lo that all round ?" said Con Lavelle, presently. " Ay, we'll dhrink to 't," Baid Mike, gaily ; and Maureen mending the fire, a jovial glow lit up the house once more. Con Lavelle had become a different man within the last few minutes. His dejected face was kindled, and his brawny hand shook as he poured the whiskey into the glasses. " Here's to Maureen's happy weddin' on this day year I" he eaid knocking the glass against his teeth, as he raised the spirit to hia lips, " Amen, amen," went round in reply, and matters being thug

concluded, the two men presently took their leave, and quitted the cabin together. " Look ye here, Mike Tiernay," said Con Lavelle, stopping short, as the two walked along in the moonlight, " I'll give you wan warnin' afore I part ye. I have loved Maureen Lacey since iver she was able to toddle. Seem' she liked ye the best, I would not have made nor meddl't betune ye. But with yer own, an' her own free will, she took an oath to-night, afore my face, an' mind I'll make her Stick to her bargain. Look to 't well, au' come home for yer wife in time, for sorraday. nor hour, norminit o' grace will I give you. if so it falls out that ye fail her 7" Mike Tiernay drew up his towering figure, and looked contemptuously into the feverish face of his rival. " When yer axed for day, or hour or minit o' grace, Con Lavelle," he said, "then come an' give me yer warnin's. Ye may wwh me what evil ye plase, but the Almighty himsel' will blow the blast that Jl bring me o'er the seas to make ruin o' yer evil hopes. I m lavin' my wife in His hands, an' heed me, man, ye shall niver touch her !" Shame fell on Con for a moment, and his better nature was found. "I do not wish ye evil, Mike Tiernay," he said, sulkily," but only to have my chance."