Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/141

Rh business, there is an end to Sive's talk about her having any claim on Shiana. Whether she had until now any hold upon him by a promise or not, she cannot pretend any longer that she has, or that she ever had. It's an ill wind that blows nobody good."

"Don't be too sure of that, John," said the priest.

"You don't know Sive thoroughly. She is the most barefaced woman I ever met. It would not surprise me in the least—if it should happen that this business didn't succeed with her, and if this gentleman were to back out and leave her—to see her come before the whole country again as bold as ever she was, trying to persuade us all that Shiana was bound to marry her."

"And who would believe her, Father?" said John.

"I dare say," said the priest, "that nobody who looked into the thing would believe her, but people generally accept a story of that sort without much examination. I myself never believed, from what anyone said, that he had made her any promise, until you persuaded me of it that last day that we were talking about it. And now I am sure that you were mistaken. I am quite sure, whatever it is that is preventing Shiana from marrying your daughter, that it has nothing to do with Sive, and that Sive has nothing to do with it, good, bad or indifferent."

"I hope," said John, "that this gentleman will marry her, whoever he is. I wouldn't grudge her to him. If he carried her off with him to Dublin it would bring great peace to the country."

"I am afraid, John," said the priest, "that it