Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/70

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
56
SHIANA
56
Kate.—I'm sure it isn't right for a girl who is a lady to be jealous or overbearing, even if it should please God to give the most angelic beauty to a humble little girl.
Sheila.—I wonder, Peg, if the people who are ugly in this world will be beautiful in Heaven?
Peg.—Oh, Sheila dear, nobody will be ugly in Heaven, but everyone will be more beautiful and gracious than the most beautiful person that a human eye ever saw in this world.
Sheila.—Then they won't need to be jealous or proud.
Peg.—There won't be any jealousy or pride there, Sheila, any more than there will be any other ugly thing.
Sheila.—Wasn't it a pity Shiana didn't take the angel's advice, instead of thinking about his malvogue and his soogaun chair and his apple-tree and about the dalteens that used to play tricks upon him?

Peg.—Well, you see, he didn't. But I dare say if he had got a second chance he would have taken it. He did not get a second chance. He had made his bargain. He had made it by the virtue of the Holy Things, and he had to stand to it. He knew right well that as soon as the last day of the thirteen years should come, the claimant would come, and that there would be no chance of hiding from him.

When he had spent a good while sitting on the Gamblers' Rock, looking about him at the beautiful view, he continued his reflections:—

"How much my case was troubling him! He heard me say that I was 'without food or drink or