CHAPTER VII
A MARRIAGE
Michael Cunliffe had for living children Martin, John and Julia, Matt, Rose, Francis, and Ellen. Martin and Julia were in America; Matt was in a shop in Cahirmona, and Rose was married in the district. Three were at home, John, Francis and Ellen; John was the eldest of these and the farm would come to him, and Francis was a young fellow working on land until he could make some settlement for himself. Ellen had just passed the age when she was referred to as "the gearcallach" and spoken to as "Sissy" by the people who came into the house. She had the look which a Connachtman saw in the women of the Midlands, Uisge faoi thalamh, "Water under the ground." This young girl with her copper-coloured hair and shrewd eyes could hold her own in a game of intrigue.
The Cunliffe house was illuminated; a candle was lighted in the kitchen window, a lamp in the upper bedroom, and another candle in the lower bedroom. This illumination was the sign of some excitement in the house. A marriage was being arranged for John, and the party on the other side were to visit Cunliffe's this evening.
Although lights were in the windows it was still the early dusk of an autumn day. Francis had
