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The blinds were drawn only in the room of Death, for Scott had so decreed, and the air blew in sweet and fresh from the rippling water. After a few minutes, Biddy came softly up behind her. "And is it himself ye're looking for, mavourneen?" she murmured at Dinah's shoulder. Dinah started a little and flushed. She wondered if Biddy knew all or only guessed.
"Cleopatra," "The Fair One with Golden Locks," "Kathleen Mavourneen," "Pocahontas," or more simply, albeit not less mysteriously, "Miss A. B.," or "Mademoiselle X." Of course, each had dressed the part as nearly as might be, and the exhibition was certainly attractive to the masculine eye.
Kathleen Mavourneen, and all! No man could have brought up a fatherless and motherless girl like that and keep her so simple, frank and innocent unless there was something fine about him. You see, highbrows and lowbrows are all alike below the collar bone. And here's the catch in it. Bently had told Eleanor that very morning that none of the rogues would get by him, and he had meant it.
Soon after the wedding, Harte called and cleverly steered the conversation on to music and songs, finally expressing great fondness for "Kathleen Mavourneen," but professing to have forgotten the words. The bridegroom swallowed the bait with avidity. "Why," said he, "they begin with 'The 'orn of the 'unter is 'eard on the 'ill." F.B. stroked his Dundrearies while his dark eyes twinkled.
The soft opening of the door recalled her to the immediate present. She saw old Biddy's face with its watchful, guardian look peep stealthily in upon her. "Ah, mavourneen!" she whispered fondly, coming forward. "And is it awake ye are? I've peeped round at ye this five times, and ye were sleeping like a new-born babe. Lie still, darlint, while I fetch ye a cup o' tay then!"
Chump, deceased, in amorous mood, had praised her management of the fan once, when breath was in him: "'Martha," says he, winkin' a sort of 'mavourneen' at me, ye know 'Martha! with a fan in your hand, if ye're not a black-eyed beauty of a Spaniard, ye little devil of Seville! says he." This she had occasionally confided to the ladies.
When the procession reached the gangway Martin disappeared into the steamer, and then the bandsmen ranged themselves in front of it, and struck up another song: "Come back to Erin, mavourneen, mavourneen, Come back, aroon, to the land of your birth." In another moment every voice in the crowd seemed to take up the refrain.
My new shute o' clothes had to be took in twice, I'm got so thin; but little you cares. Then, after a pause, 'Libby, mavourneen, you'd be a grand hand at managin' a little store; now the one at the "Corner" 'll be shut. 'Spose we tried it togedder, eh, mabouchal?
"Then, mavourneen," said Kenny, "it shall be as you say. I care more for your happiness than for my own." They went back through the darkness hand in hand. Kenny lingered moodily over his supper. His evening was casting its shadow ahead. He dreaded the thought of climbing the stairs to Adam's empty room.
A clock down-stairs strikes five, and, 'Kathleen Mavourneen, the grey dawn is breaking' over the deserted city streets. As Lady Macbeth says, 'To bed to bed! With endless love, and endless kisses, ever thine own. She finished the letter it dropped upon her lap, and her large, dark eyes looked blankly out over the cold, gray, rain-beaten sea.
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