In one of the many indentures of Kilkieran Bay,--favored by a
southerly aspect and a fine sandy beach, sheltered by two projecting
headlands,--stood a little row of cabins, originally the dwellings of
poor fishermen, but now, in summer-time, the resort of the neighboring
gentry, who frequented the coast for sea-bathing. There was little
attempt made by the humble owners to accommodate the habits of the
wealthy visitors. Some slight effort at neatness, or some modest
endeavor at internal decoration, by a little window-curtain or a rickety
chest of drawers, were the very extent of these pretensions. Year by
year the progress of civilization went thus lazily forward; and, far
from finding fault with this backwardness, it was said that the visitors
were just as well satisfied. Many hoped to see the place as they
remembered it in their own childhood, many were not sorry to avail
themselves of its inexpensive life and simple habits, and some were more
pleased that its humble attractions could draw no strangers to sojourn
there to mock by their more costly requirements the quiet ways of the
old residents.
Under the shelter of a massive rock, which formed the northern boundary
of the little bay, stood one building of more pretension. It was a
handsome bathing-lodge, with a long veranda towards the sea, and an
effort, not very successful, however, at a little flower-garden in
front. The spacious bay-windows, which opened in French fashion, were
of plate-glass; the deep projecting eave was ornamented with a handsome
cornice; and the entire front had been richly decorated by entablatures
in stucco and common cement. Still, somehow, there seemed to be a
spiteful resistance in the climate to such efforts at embellishment.
The wild hurricanes that swept over the broad Atlantic were not to be
withstood by the frail timbers of the Gothic veranda. The sweeping gusts
that sent foaming spray high over the rocky cliffs shattered the costly
panes, and smashed even the mullions that held them; while fragments of
carving, or pieces of stuccoed tracery, together with broken vases and
uprooted shrubs, littered the garden and the terrace. The house was but
a few years built, and yet was already dilapidated and ruinous-looking.
A stout stone wall had replaced the trellised woodwork of one side of
the porch; some of the windows were firmly barricaded with boards on the
outside; and iron cramps and other appliances equally unsightly on the
roof, showed by what means the slates were enabled to resist the storms.
The aspect of consistent poverty never inspires ridicule. It is shabby
gentility alone that provokes the smile of sarcastic meaning; and thus
the simple dwellings of the fishermen, in all their humility, offered
nothing to the eye of critical remark. There seemed abundant absurdity
in this attempt to defy climate and aspect, place and circumstance; and
every effort to repair an accident but brought out the pretension into
more glaring contrast. The “Osprey's Nest,” as Lady Dorothea Martin had
styled her bathing-lodge, bore, indeed, but a sorry resemblance to its
water-colored emblem in the plan of the architect; for Mr. Kirk had not
only improvised a beautiful villa, with fuchsias and clematis and
moss-roses clustering on it, but he had invented an Italian sky, and
given a Lago Maggiore tint to the very Atlantic. Your fashionable
architect is indeed a finished romancer, and revels in the license of
his art with a most voluptuous abandonment.
It was now, however, late in the autumn; some warnings of the
approaching equinox had already been felt, and the leaden sky above, and
the dark-green, sullen sea beneath, above which a cold northwester swept
gustily, recalled but little of the artistic resemblance.
The short September day was drawing to a close, and it was just that
dreary interval between day and dusk, so glorious in fine weather,
but so terribly depressing in the cold ungenial season, as all the
frequenters of the little bay were hastening homeward for the night.
Already a twinkling candle or two showed that some had retired to
their humble shealings to grumble over the discomforts about them, and
speculate on a speedy departure. They who visited Kilkieran during the
“season” were usually the gentry families of the neighborhood; but
as the summer wore over, their places were occupied by a kind of
“half-price company,”--shopkeepers and smart residents of Oughterard,
who waited for their pleasure till it could be obtained economically.
Of this class were now those on the evening I have mentioned, and to a
small select party of whom I now desire to introduce my reader.
It was “Mrs. Cronan's Evening”--for the duty of host was taken
in rotation--and Mrs. Cronan was one of the leaders of fashion in
Oughterard, for she lived on her own private means, at the top of
Carraway Street, entertained Father Maher every Sunday at dinner, and
took in the “Galway Intelligence,” which, it is but fair to say, was,
from inverted letters and press blunders, about as difficult reading as
any elderly lady ever confronted.
Mrs. Cronan was eminently genteel,--that is to say, she spent her life
in unceasing lamentations over the absence of certain comforts “she
was always used to,” and passed her days in continual reference to some
former state of existence, which, to hear her, seemed almost borrowed
bodily out of the “Arabian Nights.” Then there was Captain Bodkin, of
the Galway Fencibles,--a very fat, asthmatic old gentleman, who came
down to the “salt water” every summer for thirty years, fully
determined to bathe, but never able to summon courage to go in. He was
a kind-hearted, jolly old fellow, who loved strong punch and long whist,
and cared very little how the world went on, if these enjoyments were
available.
Then there was Miss Busk, a very tall, thin, ghostly personage, with a
pinkish nose and a pinched lip, but whose manners were deemed the very
type of high breeding, for she courtesied or bowed at almost
minute intervals during an “Evening,” and had a variety of personal
reminiscences of the Peerage. She was of “an excellent family,” Mrs.
Cronan always said; and though reduced by circumstances, she was the
Swan and Edgar of Oughterard,--“was company for the Queen herself.”
The fourth hand in the whist-table was usually taken by Mrs. Nelligan,
wife of “Pat Nelligan,” the great shopkeeper of Oughterard, and who,
though by no means entitled on heraldic grounds to take her place in any
such exalted company, was, by the happy accident of fortune, elevated to
this proud position. Mrs. Nelligan being unwell, her place was, on the
present occasion, supplied by her son; and of him I would fain say a few
words, since the reader is destined to bear company with him when the
other personages here referred to have been long forgotten.
Joseph Nelligan was a tall, pale young fellow who, though only just
passed twenty-two, looked several years older; the serious, thoughtful
expression of his face giving the semblance of age. His head was large
and massively shaped, and the temples were strong and square, deeply
indented at the sides, and throwing the broad, high forehead into
greater prominence; dark eyes, shaded by heavy, black eyebrows, lent
an almost scowling character to a face which, regular in feature, was
singularly calm and impassive-looking. His voice was deep, low, and
sonorous, and though strongly impressed with the intonation of his
native province, was peculiarly soft, and, to Irish ears, even musical.
He was, however, remarkably silent; rarely or never conversed, as his
acquaintances understood conversation, and only when roused by some
theme that he cared for, or stimulated by some assertion that he
dissented from, was he heard to burst forth into a rapid flow of words,
uttered as though under the impulse of passion, and of which, when
ended, he seemed actually to feel ashamed himself.
He was no favorite with the society of Kilkieran; some thought him
downright stupid; others regarded him as a kind of spy upon his
neighbors,--an imputation most lavishly thrown out in every circle where
there is nothing to detect, and where all the absurdity lies palpable on
the surface; and many were heard to remark that he seemed to forget who
he was, and that “though he was a college student, he ought to remember
he was only Pat Nelligan's son.”
If he never courted their companionship, he as little resented their
estrangement from him. He spent his days and no small share of his
nights in study; books supplied to him the place of men, and in their
converse he forgot the world. His father's vanity had entered him as
a Fellow-Commoner in the University, and even this served to widen
the interval between him and those of his own age; his class-fellows
regarded his presence amongst them as an intolerable piece of low-bred
presumption. Nor was this unkindly feeling diminished when they saw him,
term after term, carry away the prizes of each examination; for equally
in science as in classics was he distinguished, till at length it became
a current excuse for failure when a man said, “I was in Nelligan's
division.”
It is not impossible that his social isolation contributed much to his
success. For him there were none of the amusements which occupy those of
his own age. The very fact of his fellow-commoner's gown separated him
as widely from one set of his fellow-students as from the other, and
thus was he left alone with his ambition. As time wore on, and his
successes obtained wider notoriety, some of those in authority in the
University appeared to be disposed to make advances to him; but he
retreated modestly from these marks of notice, shrouding himself in
his obscurity, and pleading the necessity for study. At length came
the crowning act of his college career, in the examination for the gold
medal; and although no competitor was bold enough to dispute the prize
with him, he was obliged to submit to the ordeal. It is rarely that the
public vouchsafes any interest in the details of University honors; but
this case proved an exception, and almost every journal of the capital
alluded in terms of high paneygric to the splendid display he made on
that occasion.
In the very midst of these triumphs, young Nelligan arrived at his
father's house in Oughterard, to enjoy the gratification his success had
diffused at home, and rest himself after his severe labors. Little as
old Pat Nelligan of his neighbors knew of University honors, or the
toil which won them, there was enough in the very publicity of his son's
career to make him a proud man. He at least knew that Joe had beaten
them all; that none could hold a candle to him; “that for nigh a century
such answering had not been heard on the bench.” This was the expression
of a Dublin journal, coupled with the partisan regret that, by the
bigoted statutes of the college, genius of such order should be denied
the privilege of obtaining a fellowship.
If young Nelligan retired, half in pride, half in bashful-ness, from the
notice of society in Dublin, he was assuredly little disposed to enter
into the gayeties and dissipations of a small country-town existence.
The fulsome adulation of some, the stupid astonishment of others, but,
worse than either, the vulgar assumption that his success was a kind of
party triumph,--a blow dealt by the plebeian against the patrician, the
Papist against the Protestant,--shocked and disgusted him, and he was
glad to leave Oughterard and accompany his mother to the seaside. She
was an invalid of some years' standing,--a poor, frail, simple-hearted
creature, who, after a long, struggling life of hardship and toil, saw
herself in affluence and comfort, and yet could not bring her mind to
believe it true. As little could she comprehend the strange fact of
Joe's celebrity; of his name figuring in newspapers, and his health
being drunk at a public dinner in his native town. To her he was
invaluable; the very tenderest of nurses, and the best of all
companions. She did n't care for books, even those of the most amusing
kind; but she loved to hear the little gossip of the place where the
neighbors passed the evening; what topics they discussed; who had left
and who had arrived, and every other little incident of their uneventful
lives. Simple and easy of execution as such an office might have been
to a kindred spirit, to Joseph Nelligan it proved no common labor. And
certain it is that the mistakes he committed in names, and the blunders
he fell into as regarded events, rather astonished his mother, and
led that good lady to believe that Trinity College must not have
been fertile in genius when poor Joe was regarded as one of the great
luminaries of his time. “Ah,” would she say, “if he had his father's
head it would be telling him! but, poor boy, he remembers nothing!”
This digression--far longer than I cared to make it, but which has grown
to its present extent under my hands--will explain young Nelligan's
presence at Mrs. Cronan's “Tea,” where already a number of other
notables had now assembled, and were gracefully dispersed through the
small rooms which formed her apartment. Play of various kinds formed the
chief amusement of the company; and while the whist-table, in decorous
gravity, held the chief place in the sitting-room, a laughing round game
occupied the kitchen, and a hardly contested “hit” of backgammon
was being fought out on the bed, where, for lack of furniture, the
combatants had established themselves.
The success of an evening party is not always proportionate to the means
employed to secure it. Very splendid _salons_, costly furniture,
and what newspapers call “all the delicacies of the season,” are
occasionally to be found in conjunction with very dull company; while
a great deal of enjoyment and much social pleasure are often to be
met with where the material resources have been of the fewest and most
simple kind. On the present occasion there was a great deal of laughing,
and a fair share of love-making; some scolding at whist, and an
abundance of scandal, at least of that cut-and-thrust-at character which
amuses the speakers themselves, and is never supposed to damage those
who are the object of it. All the company who had frequented the
port--as Kilkieran was called--during the season were passed in review,
and a number of racy anecdotes interchanged about their rank, morals,
fortune, and pretensions. A very general impression seemed to prevail
that in the several points of climate, scenery, social advantages, and
amusements, Kilkieran might stand a favorable comparison with the first
watering-places, not alone of England, but the Continent; and after
various discursive reasons why its fame had not equalled its deserts,
there was an almost unanimous declaration of opinion that the whole
fault lay with the Martins; not, indeed, that the speakers were very
logical in their arguments, since some were heard to deplore the change
from the good old times, when everybody was satisfied to live anywhere
and anyhow, when there was no road to the place but a bridle-path, not
a loaf of bread to be had within twelve miles, no post-office; while
others eloquently expatiated on all that might have been, and yet was
not done.
“We tried to get up a little news-room,” said Captain Bodkin, “and I
went to Martin myself about it, but he hum'd and ha'd, and said, until
people subscribed for the Dispensary he thought they needn't mind
newspapers.”
“Just like him,” said Mrs. Cronan; “but, indeed, I think it's my Lady
does it all.”
“I differ from you, ma'am,” said Miss Busk, with a bland smile; “I
attribute the inauspicious influence to another.”
“You mean Miss Martin?” said Mrs. Cronan.
“Just so, ma'am; indeed, I have reason to know I am correct. This time
two years it was I went over to Cro' Martin House to propose opening 'my
Emporium' for the season at the port. I thought it was due to the owners
of the estate, and due to myself also,” added Miss Busk, majestically,
“to state my views about a measure so intimately associated with
the--the--in fact, what I may call the interests of civilization. I
had just received my plates of the last fashions from Dublin,--you may
remember them, ma'am; I showed them to you at Mrs. Cullenane's--well,
when I was in the very middle of my explanation, who should come into
the room but Miss Martin--”
“Dressed in the old brown riding-habit?” interposed a fat old lady with
one eye.
“Yes, Mrs. Few, in the old brown riding-habit. She came up to the table,
with a saucy laugh in her face, and said, 'Why, uncle, are you going to
give a fancy ball?'
“'It is the last arrival from Paris, miss,' said I; 'the Orleans mantle,
which, though not a “costume de Chasse,” is accounted very becoming.'
“'Ah, you 're laughing at my old habit, Miss Busk,' said she, seeing
how I eyed her; 'and it really is very shabby, but I intend to give Dan
Leary a commission to replace it one of these days.'”
“Dan Leary, of the Cross-roads!” exclaimed Captain Bodkin, laughing.
“I pledge you my word of honor, sir, she said it. 'And as to all this
finery, Miss Busk,' said she, turning over the plates with her whip, 'it
would be quite unsuitable to our country, our climate, and our habits;
not to say, that the Orleans mantle would be worn with an ill grace when
our people are going half naked!'”
“Positively indecent! downright indelicate!” shuddered Mrs. Cronan.
“And did Martin agree with her?” asked the Captain.
“I should like to know when he dared to do otherwise. Why, between my
lady and the niece he can scarcely call his life his own.”
“They say he has a cruel time of it,” sighed Mr. Clinch, the
revenue-officer, who had some personal experience of domestic slavery.
“Tush,--nonsense!” broke in his wife. “I never knew one of those
hen-pecked creatures that was n't a tyrant in his family. I 'll engage,
if the truth were known, Lady Dorothy has the worst of it.”
“Faith, and he's much altered from what he was when a boy, if any
one rules him,” said the captain. “I was at school with him and his
twin-brother Barry. I remember the time when one of them had to wear a
bit of red ribbon in his button-hole to distinguish him from the other.
They were the born images of each other,--that is, in looks; for in
real character they were n't a bit like. Godfrey was a cautious, quiet,
careful chap that looked after his pocket-money, and never got into
scrapes; and Barry was a wasteful devil that made the coin fly, and
could be led by any one. I think he 'd have given his life for his
brother any day. I remember once when Godfrey would n't fight a boy,--I
forget what it was about; Barry stole the bit of ribbon out of his coat,
and went up and fought in his place; and a mighty good thrashing he got,
too.”
“I have heard my father speak of that,” said a thin, pale, careworn
little man in green spectacles; “for the two boys were taken away at
once, and it was the ruin of the school.”
“So it was, doctor; you're right there,” broke in the Captain; “and they
say that Martin bears a grudge against you to this day.”
“That would be hard,” sighed the meek doctor; “for I had nothing to
do with it, or my father, either. But it cost him dearly!” added he,
mournfully.
“You know best, doctor, whether it is true or not; but he certainly was
n't your friend when you tried for the Fever Hospital.”
“That was because Pat Nelligan was on my committee,” said the doctor.
“And was that sufficient to lose you Mr. Martin's support, sir?” asked
young Nelligan, with a degree of astonishment in his face, that, joined
to the innocence of the question, caused a general burst of hearty
laughter.
“The young gentleman knows more about _cubic_ sections, it appears,
than of what goes on in his own town,” said the Captain. “Why, sir,
your father is the most independent man in all Oughterard; and if I know
Godfrey Martin, he 'd give a thousand guineas this night to have him out
of it.”
A somewhat animated “rally” followed this speech, in which different
speakers gave their various reasons why Martin ought or ought not to
make any sacrifice to put down the spirit of which Pat Nelligan was the
chief champion. These arguments were neither cogent nor lucid enough to
require repeating; nor did they convey to Joseph himself, with all
his anxiety for information, the slightest knowledge on the subject
discussed. Attention was, however, drawn off the theme by the clattering
sound of a horse passing along the shingly shore at a smart gallop;
and with eager curiosity two or three rushed to the door to see what
it meant. A swooping gust of wind and rain, overturning chairs and
extinguishing candles, drove them suddenly back again; and, half
laughing at the confusion, half cursing the weather, the party
barricaded the door, and returned to their places.
“Of course it was Miss Martin; who else would be out at this time of the
night?” said Mrs. Clinch.
“And without a servant!” exclaimed Miss Busk.
“Indeed, you may well make the remark, ma'am,” said Mrs. Cronan. “The
young lady was brought up in a fashion that was n't practised in my
time!”
“Where could she have been down that end of the port, I wonder?” said
Mrs. Clinch. “She came up from Garra Cliff.”
“Maybe she came round by the strand,” said the doctor; “if she did, I
don't think there 's one here would like to have followed her.”
“I would n't be her horse!” said one; “nor her groom!” muttered another;
and thus, gradually lashing themselves into a wild indignation, they
opened, at last, a steady fire upon the young lady,--her habits, her
manners, and her appearance all coming in for a share of criticism; and
although a few modest amendments were put in favor of her horsemanship
and her good looks, the motion was carried that no young lady ever took
such liberties before, and that the meeting desired to record their
strongest censure on the example thus extended to their own young
people.
If young Nelligan ventured upon a timid question of what it was she
had done, he was met by an eloquent chorus of half a dozen voices,
recounting mountain excursions which no young lady had ever made before;
distant spots visited, dangers incurred, storms encountered, perils
braved, totally unbecoming to her in her rank of life, and showing that
she had no personal respect, nor--as Miss Busk styled it--“a
proper sense of the dignity of woman!”
“'T was down at Mrs. Nelligan's, ma'am, Miss Mary was,” said Mrs.
Cronan's maid, who had been despatched special to make inquiry on the
subject.
“At my mother's!” exclaimed Joseph, reddening, without knowing in the
least why. And now a new diversion occurred, while all discussed every
possible and impossible reason for this singular fact, since the family
at the “Nest” maintained no intercourse whatever with their neighbors,
not even seeming, by any act of their lives, to acknowledge their very
existence.
Young Nelligan took the opportunity to make his escape during the
debate; and as the society offers nothing very attractive to detain us,
it will be as well if we follow him, while he hastened homeward along
the dark and storm-lashed beach. He had about a mile to go, and, short
as was this distance, it enabled him to think over what he had just
heard, strange and odd as it seemed to his ears. Wholly given up, as he
had been for years past, to the ambition of a college life, with but one
goal before his eyes, one class of topics engrossing his thoughts, he
had never even passingly reflected on the condition of parties, the
feuds of opposing factions, and, stronger than either, the animosities
that separated social ranks in Ireland. Confounding the occasional
slights he had experienced by virtue of his class, with the jealousy
caused by his successes, he had totally overlooked the disparagement men
exhibited towards the son of the little country shopkeeper, and never
knew of his disqualification for a society whose precincts he had not
tried to pass. The littleness, the unpurpose-like vacuity, the intense
vulgarity of his Oughterard friends had disgusted him, it is true; but
he had yet to learn that the foolish jealousy of their wealthy
neighbor was a trait still less amiable, and ruminating over these
problems,--knottier far to him than many a complex formula or many a
disputed reading of a Greek play,--he at last reached the solitary
little cabin where his mother lived.
It is astonishing how difficult men of highly cultivated and actively
practised minds find it to comprehend the little turnings and windings
of commonplace life, the jealousies and the rivalries of small people.
They search for motives where there are merely impulses, and look for
reasons when there are simple passions.
It was only as he lifted the latch that he remembered how deficient
he was in all the information his mother would expect from him. Of the
fortunes of the whist-table he actually knew nothing; and had he been
interrogated as to the “toilette” of the party, his answers would have
betrayed a lamentable degree of ignorance. Fortunately for him, his
mother did not display her habitual anxiety on these interesting themes.
She neither asked after the Captain's winnings,--he was the terror of
the party,--nor whether Miss Busk astonished the company by another new
gown. Poor Mrs. Nelligan was too brimful of another subject to admit
of one particle of extraneous matter to occupy her. With a proud
consciousness, however, of her own resources, she affected to have
thoughts for other things, and asked Joe if he passed a pleasant day?
“Yes, very--middling--quite so--rather stupid, I thought,” replied he,
in his usual half-connected manner, when unable to attach his mind to
the question before him.
“Of, course, my dear, it's very unlike what you 're used to up in
Dublin, though I believe that Captain Bodkin, when he goes there, always
dines with the Lord-Lieutenant; and Miss Busk, I know, is second cousin
to Ram of Swainestown, and there is nothing better than that in Ireland.
I say this between ourselves, for your father can't bear me to talk of
family or connections, though I am sure I was always brought up to
think a great deal about good blood; and if my father was a Finnerty, my
mother was a Moore of Crockbawn, and her family never looked at her for
marrying my father.”
“Indeed!” said Joe, in a dreamy semi-consciousness.
“It's true what I 'm telling you. She often said it to me herself, and
told me what a blessing it was, through all her troubles and trials in
life; and she had her share of them, for my father was often in drink,
and very cruel at times. 'It supports me,' she used to say, 'to remember
who I am, and the stock I came from, and to know that there 's not one
belonging to me would speak to me, nor look at the same side of the road
with me, after what I done; and, Matty,' said she to me, 'if ever it
happens to you to marry a man beneath you in life, always bear in
mind that, no matter how he treats you, you 're better than him.' And,
indeed, it's a great support and comfort to one's feelings, after all,”
said she, with a deep sigh.
“I'm certain of it,” muttered Joe, who had not followed one word of the
harangue.
“But mind that you never tell your father so. Indeed, I would n't let on
to him what happened this evening.”
“What was that?” asked the young man, roused by the increased anxiety of
her manner.
“It was a visit I had, my dear,” replied the old lady, with a simpering
consciousness that she had something to reveal,--“it was a visit I had
paid me, and by an elegant young lady, too.”
“A young lady? Not Miss Cassidy, mother. I think she left yesterday
morning.”
“No, indeed, my dear. Somebody very different from Miss Cassidy; and you
might guess till you were tired before you 'd think of Miss Martin.”
“Miss Martin!” echoed Joe.
“Exactly so. Miss Martin of Cro' Martin; and the way it happened was
this. I was sitting here alone in the room after my tea,--for I sent
Biddy out to borrow the 'Intelligence' for me; and then comes a sharp
knock to the door, and I called out, 'Come in;' but instead of doing so
there was another rapping, louder than before, and I said, 'Bother you,
can't you lift the latch?' and then I heard something like a laugh, and
so I went out; and you may guess the shame I felt as I saw a young
lady fastening the bridle of her horse to the bar of the window. 'Mrs.
Nelli-gan, I believe,' said she, with a smile and a look that warmed
my heart to her at once; and as I courtesied very low, she went on. I
forget, indeed, the words,--whether she said she was Miss Martin, or
it was I that asked the question; but I know she came in with me to the
room, and sat down where you are sitting now. 'Coming back from Kyle's
Wood this morning,' said she, 'I overtook poor Billy with the post. He
was obliged to go two miles out of his way to ford the river; and what
with waiting for the mail, which was late in coming, and what with being
wet through, he was completely knocked up; so I offered to take the bag
for him, and send it over to-morrow by one of our people. But the poor
fellow would n't consent, because he was charged with something of
consequence for you,--a small bottle of medicine. Of course I was only
too happy to take this also, Mrs. Nelligan, and here it is.' And with
that she put it on the table, where you see it. I 'm sure I never knew
how to thank her enough for her good nature, but I said all that I could
think of, and told her that my son was just come back from college,
after getting the gold medal.”
“You did n't speak of that, mother,” said he, blushing till his very
forehead was crimson.
“Indeed, then, I did, Joe; and I 'd like to know why I would n't. Is it
a shame or a disgrace to us! At any rate, _she_ didn't think so, for she
said, 'You must be very proud of him;' and I told her so I was, and that
he was as good as he was clever; and, moreover, that the newspapers said
the time was coming when men like young Nelligan would soar their way up
to honors and distinctions in spite of the oppressive aristocracy that
so long had combined to degrade them.”
“Good Heavens! mother, you could n't have made such a speech as that?”
cried he, in a voice of downright misery.
“Did n't I, then? And did n't she say, if there were any such oppression
as could throw obstacles in the way of deserving merit, she heartily
hoped it might prove powerless; and then she got up to wish me
good-evening. I thought, at first, a little stiffly,--that is, more
haughty in her manner than at first; but when I arose to see her out,
and she saw I was lame, she pressed me down into my chair, and said, in
such a kind voice, 'You must n't stir, my dear Mrs. Nelligan. I, who can
find my road over half of the county, can surely discover my way to the
door.' 'Am I ever like to have the happiness of seeing you again, miss?'
said I, as I held her hand in mine. 'Certainly, if it would give you the
very slightest pleasure,' said she, pressing my hand most cordially; and
with that we parted. Indeed, I scarce knew she was gone, when I heard
the clattering of the horse over the shingle; for she was away in
a gallop, dark as the night was. Maybe,” added the old lady, with a
sigh,--“maybe, I 'd have thought it was all a dream if it was n't that I
found that glove of hers on the floor; she dropped it, I suppose, going
out.”
Young Nelligan took up the glove with a strange feeling of bashful
reverence. It was as though he was touching a sacred relic; and he stood
gazing on it steadfastly for some seconds.
“I 'll send it over to the house by Biddy, with my compliments, and to
know how the family is, in the morning,” said Mrs. Nelligan, with the
air of one who knew the value of conventional usages.
“And she 'll make some stupid blunder or other,” replied Joe,
impatiently, “that will cover us all with shame. No, mother, I 'd rather
go with it myself than that.”
“To be sure, and why not?” said Mrs. Nelligan. “There 's no reason why
_you_ should be taking up old quarrels against the Martins; for _my_
part, I never knew the country so pleasant as it used to be long ago,
when we used to get leave to go picnicking on the grounds of Cro'
Martin, up to the Hermitage, as they called it; and now the gates are
locked and barred like a jail, and nobody allowed in without a ticket.”
“Yes, I'll go myself with it,” said Joe, who heard nothing of
his mother's remark, but was following out the tract of his own
speculations. As little did he attend to the various suggestions she
threw out for his guidance and direction, the several topics to which he
might, and those to which he must not, on any account, allude.
“Not a word, for your life, Joe, about the right of pathway to Clune
Abbey, and take care you say nothing about the mill-race at Glandaff,
nor the shooting in Kyle's Wood. And if by any chance there should be a
talk about the tolls at Oughterard, say you never heard of them before.
Make out, in fact,” said she, summing up, “as if you never heard of
a county where there was so much good-will and kindness between the
people; and sure it is n't your fault if it's not true!” And with this
philosophic reflection Mrs. Nelligan wished her son good-night, and
retired.