The after-reflections of those most interested in the above gathering
were various, and it must be admitted to some extent unsatisfactory.
First of all, old Murdock was keen enough to perceive that he had not
furthered his object in the least by having given the party at all.
From what Tom had told him he had kept a close watch upon young
Lennon, of whose aspirations toward Winny Cavana he had now no doubt,
and if he was not sure of a preference upon her part toward him, he
was quite certain that she had none toward Tom. This was the natural
result of old Murdock's observations of Winny's conduct during the
evening,--who, while she could and did hide the one, could not, and
did not, hide the other.
Tom Murdock was the least satisfied of them all with the whole
business, and sullenly told his father, who had done it all to serve
him, that "he had done more harm than good, and that he knew he would,
by asking that whelp Lennon; and he hoped he might never die till he
broke every bone in his body. By hook or by crook, by fair means or
foul, he must put a stop to his hopes in that quarter."
His father was silent. He felt that he had not advanced matters by his
party. Old Cavana was not the sharp old man in these matters, either
to mind or divine from how many points the wind blew, and quietly
supposed all had gone on smoothly, as he and old Murdock wished.
Winifred had been more than confirmed in her dislike to Tom Murdock,
while her secret preference for Emon-a-knock had been in no respect
diminished. She had depth enough also to perceive that Kate Mulvey was
anxious enough to propitiate the good opinion, to which she had taken
no pains to hide her indifference. She was aware that Kate Mulvey's
name had been associated with young Lennon's by the village gossips,
but she had seen nothing on that night to justify any apprehension, if
she chose to set herself to work. She would take an opportunity of
sounding her friend upon this momentous subject, and finding out how
the land really lay. If that was the side of her head Kate's cap was
inclined to lean to, might they not strike a quiet and confidential
little bargain between them, as regarded these two young men?
Kate Mulvey's thoughts were not very much at variance with those of
her friend Winny. She, not having the same penetration into the
probable results of sinister looks and scowling brows; or not,
perhaps, having ever perceived them, had thrown one of the nicest caps
that ever came from a smoothing-iron at Tom Murdock, but she feared he
had not yet picked it up. She was afraid, until the night of the
party, that her friend and rival--yes, it is only in the higher ranks
of society that the two cannot be united--had thrown a still more
richly trimmed one at him; but on that night, and she had watched
closely, she had formed a reasonable belief that her fear was totally
unfounded. She was not quite sure that it had not been let drop in
Emon-a-knock's way, if not actually thrown at him. These girls, in
such cases, are so sharp!
The very same thought had struck her. She also had determined upon
sounding her friend Winny, and would take the first favorable
opportunity of having a confidential chat with her upon the subject.
The girls were very intimate, and were not rivals, only they did not
know it. We shall see by-and-by how they "sounded" each other.
Young Lennon's after-thoughts, upon the whole, were more satisfactory
than perhaps those of any of the other principal persons concerned. If
Winny Cavana had not shown him a decided preference over the general
set of young men there, she had certainly been still less particular
in her conduct and manner toward Tom Murdock. These matters, no doubt,
are managed pretty much the same in all ranks of society, though, of
course, not with the same refinement; and to young Lennon, whose heart
was on the watch, as well as his eyes, one or two little incidents
during the night gave him some faint hopes that, as yet at least, his
rich rival had not made much way against him. Hitherto, young Lennon
had looked upon the rich heiress of Rathcash as a fruit too high for
him to reach from the low ground upon which he stood, and had given
more of his attention to her poorer neighbor Kate Mulvey. He, however,
met with decided reluctance in that quarter, and being neither
cowardly, ignorant, nor shy, he had improved one or two favorable
occasions with Winny Cavana at the party, whom he now had some,
perhaps delusive, notion was not so far above his reach after all.
These are the only persons with whose after-thoughts we are concerned.
There may have been some other by-play on the part of two or three
fine young men and handsome girls, who burned themselves upon the bar,
and danced together after they became cinders, but as they are in no
respect mixed up with our story, we may pass them by without
investigating their thoughts, further than to declare that they were
all well pleased, and that the praises of old Murdock's munificence
rang from one end of the parish to the other.