“No harm, mother, dear,” said Connor in reply to her; “harm!  Oh! mother, mother, if you knew it; an’ as for what you say, father, it’s right; what advice but my mother’s an’ yours ought I to ask?”

“An’ God’s too,” added the mother.

“An’ my heart was nevir more ris to God than it was’, an’ is this night,” replied their ingenuous boy.

“Well, but what has happened, Connor?” said his father; “if it’s anything where our advice can serve you, of coorse we’ll advise you for the best.”

Connor then, with a glowing heart, made them acquainted with the affection which subsisted between himself and Una O’Brien, and ended by informing them of the vow of marriage which they had that night solemnly pledged to each other.

“You both know her by sight,” he added, “an’ afther what I’ve sed, can you blame me for sayin’ that I found this a pleasant and a happy night?”

The affectionate mother’s eyes filled with tears of pride and delight, on hearing that her handsome son was loved by the beautiful daughter of Bodagh Buie, and she could not help exclaiming, in the enthusiasm of the moment,

“She’s a purty girl—­the purtiest indeed I ever laid my two livin’ eyes upon, and by all accounts as good as she’s purty; but I say that, face to face, you’re as good, ay, an’ as handsome, Fardorougha, as she is.  God bless her, any way, an’ mark her to grace and happiness, ma colleen dhas dhun.”

“He’s no match for her,” said the father, who had listened with an earnest face, and compressed lips, to his son’s narrative; “he’s no match for her—­by four hundred guineas.”

Honora, when he uttered the previous part of his observation, looked upon him with a flash of indignant astonishment; but when he had concluded, her countenance fell back into its original expression.  It was evident that, while she, with the feelings of a woman and a mother, instituted a parallel between their personal merits alone, the husband viewed their attachment through that calculating spirit which had regulated his whole life.

“You’re thinkin’ of her money now,” she added; “but remimber, Fardorougha, that it wasn’t born wid her.  An’ I hope, Connor, it’s not for her money that you have any grah for her?”

“You may swear that, mother; I love her little finger betther than all the money in the king’s bank.”

“Connor, avich, your mother has made a fool of you, or you wouldn’t spake the nonsense you spoke this minute.”

“My word to you, father, I’ll take all the money I’ll get; but what am I to do?  Bodagh Buie an’ his wife will never consent to allow her to marry me, I can tell you; an’ if she marries me without their consent, you both know I have no way of supportin’ her, except you, father, assist me.”

“That won’t be needful, Connor; you may manage them; they won’t see her want; she’s an only daughter; they couldn’t see her want.”