110
SHIANA
Sheila.—Hear her! Did he come, Peg?
Peg.—Wait a while, Sheila dear, and you will hear the whole story exactly as it happened.
CHAPTER XIV.
A DILEMMA.
Peg.—As I said a while ago, when Grey Dermot's Sive understood that Short Mary's match was broken off, she told everyone that it was she herself who had broken it, and that the reason why she broke it was that Shiana had made a promise of marriage to herself.
Nobody contradicted her. Some people believed it and some did not; but whether they believed it or not, there was no fear that anybody would try to dispute the matter with her. She was always boasting that she was the girl to put down forward, chattering hussies like the Maid of the Liss and Nora of the Causeway. And as for Short Mary, she was sure that she had too much respect for herself to marry a man who had been promised to another woman.
Sheila.—Oh, wasn't she a villain!
Peg.—You see, Sheila, the way it was with her at last was this: she had told the story in that way so often, without anyone contradicting her, that I think in the end she quite believed it herself.
