Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/90

76 to you now—a thing that would knock the pride out of her, I promise you."

"And tell me, mother, if that is your opinion of her, why did you go up to Shiana's house yesterday morning to try to make a match between her and Shiana?"

"A match between her and Shiana! Why, I'd drown myself before I would do the like," said she.

"Well, then, why did you say to the Maid of the Liss, that day that she was here, that Shiana wouldn't marry any woman in Ireland but Sive?" said he.

"The Maid of the Liss? Yeh, the silly thing, because I wanted to put some stop to her tongue, and not to have her boasting all over the country that he was going to marry her, and the whole country laughing at her!"

"Why then indeed," said Michael, "and there is no use in your hiding it from me, it was a match you had on hand yesterday morning."

"And how do you know what I had on hand?"

"Because he spoke loud, and I heard the words: 'It would be better for her to die than that I should marry her.'"

"Listen, Michael," said she, "if you were to get your will in the matter, who is the wife you would choose for him?"

"Short Mary, of course," said he.

She looked at him sharply.

"And what's the reason," said she, "that you would choose Short Mary for him rather than any other woman of all these that the whole world is marrying to him?"

"In the first place, mother, I have no great opinion of the talk of the whole world. The whole world