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132 "What brought them here?"

"They came to the fair."

"Why?"

"To buy horses for the King."

"When did they come?"

"The day before yesterday, in the evening."

"Where have they spent the time since then?"

"They have been mostly out during the day, but they have been sleeping at my house."

"And what is this that Sive is up to?"

"A match has been made between herself and Sheeghy MacGilpatrick."

"How do you know the gentleman hasn't a wife already?"

"That's the very thing the priest said to me last night when I was speaking to him. But I told him I only wanted to get leave from him for some priest in Dublin to marry them. He certainly would not ask that leave if he were married and had a wife already in Dublin."

"I see," said Shiana. "Who made the match?"

"Well, they were making fun and amusing themselves the first night, and each of them was telling the others that Sive would rather marry him than any of them.—'Let us cast lots upon it,' said one of them.—'Perhaps she wouldn't take the man on whom the lot fell,' said another. They put the question to her.—'I'll take him,' said she, 'if the lot falls on the man I like.' They all made great fun over that. They cast lots, and the lot fell on the man you saw walking with her a while ago. We all thought it was only a joke, but indeed he took it quite seriously. When Sive wanted to draw out of it he said, 'Indeed, my girl, that won't do. You said you would take the