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"Father," said the young man, "I have too much of your own blood in me to be afraid of any man but for all that, I neither will nor can fight Meehaul Neil." "Very well," said the father, bitterly, "that's enough. Dher Manim, Oonagh, you're a guilty woman; that boy's no son of mine. If he had my blood in him, he couldn't act as he did.
His conduct filled them with wonder, it is true; but although the general tone of feeling respecting the robbery was decidedly in his favor, yet there still existed among the public, particularly in the faction that was hostile to him, enough of doubt, openly expressed, to render it a duty to avoid him; particularly when this formidable suspicion was joined to the notorious fact of his cowardice in the rencounter with Meehaul Neil.
After a tender good-night, given in a truly poetical manner under the breaking light of a May moon, he found it necessary to retrace his steps by a path which wound round the orchard, and terminated in the public entrance to the town. Along this suburban street he had advanced but a short way, when he found himself overtaken and arrested by his bitter and determined foe, Meehaul Neil.
These mysterious hints, oracularly thrown out, gained her the reputation of knowing more than mere human agency could acquire, and of course she was openly conciliated and secretly hated. Her conversation with the menials of the inn was very short and decisive. "Sheemus," said she to the person who acted in the capacity of waiter, "where's Meehaul Neil?"
The same tumultuous expression of glee and malignity again lit up the features of the old woman, as she looked at him, and replied, with something like contemptuous hesitation, "Why, I don't know that. If you had more sharpness or sinse I might say Meehaul Neil," she added, elevating her voice, "what do you think I could say, this sacred moment! Your sister!
"I know that, Meehaul Neil, without hearin' it from you. Spake, what have you to say?" "There was a time," observed the other, "when you and I were enemies only because our cleaveens were enemies but now there is, an' you know it, a blacker hatred between us."
"I'm here alone," said he; "is there any among you that will second me?" Hundreds immediately volunteered this office; but there was one who immediately sprung upon the stage, to the no small surprise of all present it was Meehaul Neil. He approached Lamh Laudher and extended his hand, which was received with cordiality. "Meehaul," said O'Rorke, "I thank you for this."
Before ten o'clock the next morning his father's house was crowded with friends and relations, anxious to hear the truth from his own lips, and all, after having heard it, eager to point out to him the only method that remained of wiping away his disgrace, namely, to challenge Meehaul Neil.
Now a word of advice before you go in; don't let on to Ellen that you know of her meetin' him this night; an' reason good, if she thinks you're watchin' her, she'll be on her guard 'ay, an' outdo you in spite of your teeth. She's a woman she's a woman. Good night, an' mark him the next time betther." Meehaul himself had come to the same determination and from the same motive.
Here on my two knees I ask it from you, for my own, for your own, and for the sake of God above us! I know Meehaul. If he got a blow from you on my account, he'd never forgive it to either you or me." She joined her hands in supplication to him as she knelt, and the tears chased each other like rain down her cheeks.
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