liberty to tell it to you now, that Mary is of the same mind concerning you that you are concerning her."
"What is that you are saying, Father?" said Shiana, in great consternation.
"I am saying what I know, and that is that Short Mary's life will be the shorter for it if she is not married to you. She is wasting away before our eyes."
"Oh! God help my soul!" said Shiana. "Things are seven times worse than I had imagined!"
"What, are you out of your mind?" said the priest.
"Oh, I am not out of my mind, Father, nor out of my senses. I am only too well in possession of both. There is a poor woman there to the west, to whom I did a little favour the other day. She came to me, to do me a good turn, as she thought, and she spoke to me about this business. I thought I had given her to understand plainly enough that I had no possible chance of making a match with Short Mary, or with any other woman. I expected that she would have made it known to Mary herself and to her father, and that the matter would be dropped quietly, without trouble to anybody except myself. Instead of that, it appears that there is some unlucky fate driving it along and bringing it to a head in spite of my utmost opposition. The worthy man himself came walking up to see me this morning, to tell me that there was no man in Ireland whom he would rather have as a son-in-law than myself. And when I made it clear to him, as gently as I could, that there was no possibility of my ever marrying, you would think the night had fallen upon him in
