Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/94

80 home, and Shiana is gone east to the priest's house."

"What were they saying in the field?" said she.

"I don't know," said he. "They were too far away from me."

Michael spoke truth. Shiana had gone to the priest's house, but indeed it was not to complete the match.

"God be with you, Shiana!" said the priest.

"Those shoes you sent me the other day are very comfortable."

"God and Mary be with you, and Patrick, Father! I am very glad you like the shoes. But what brought me here now to talk to you is this, that I am in a desperate difficulty."

"Indeed, Shiana, I am very sorry to hear that; and not only I, but there is not a person about the country, low or high, rich or poor, who would not be sorry. And indeed—and it is not because you are present that I say it—they would have a good right to be sorry."

"Many is the hard strait I have been through for a good while past, Father; but this is the sharpest grip that ever seized upon my heart. You know John Kittach's daughter?"

"Certainly, Shiana. Who doesn't know Mary? The most respected young woman in the parish."

"There isn't another like her walking the dew this day, Father, and the way things are with me this long time is, that I would give all I have in the world, and all that I ever had and ever will have, to be able to marry her."

"It is a pity you didn't tell me that long ago, my son. I am aware, in such a way that I am at