Dear Con, I am ready to marry you, an' share your distress tomorrow; ay, this day, or this minute, if it could be done." There was a gentle, calm, but firm enthusiasm about her manner, which carried immediate conviction with it, and as her tears fell in silence, she bestowed a look upon her lover which fully and tenderly confirmed all that her tongue had uttered.
Both had been standing; but her lover, taking her hand, sat down, as she also did; he then turned around and pressed her to his heart; and their tears in this melancholy embrace of love and sorrow both literally mingled together.
"I would be ungrateful to God, my beloved Mave," he replied, "and unworthy of you--and, indeed, at best I'm not worthy of you--if I didn't take hope an' courage, when I know that sich a girl Joves me; as it is, I feel my heart aisier, an' my spirits lighter; although, at the same time, dear Mave, I'm very wake, and far from being well." "That's bekaise this disturbance of your mind is too much for you yet--but keep your spirits up; you don't know," she continued, smiling sweetly through her tears; "what a delightful prophecy was fulfilled for us this day--ay, awhile ago, even when I met you." "No," he replied, "what was it ?" She then detailed the particulars of Donnel Dhu's prediction, which she dwelt upon with a very cheerful spirit, after which she added: "And now, Con dear, don't you think that's a sign we'll be yet happy ?" Dalton, who placed no reliance whatever on Donnel Dhu's impostures, still felt reluctant to destroy the hope occasioned by such an agreeable illusion.

"Well," he replied, "although I don't much believe in anything that ould scoundrel says; I trust, for all that, that he has tould you truth for wanst." "But how did you happen to come here, Con ?" she asked; "to be here at the very minute, too ?" "Why," said he, "I was desired to be the first to meet you after you passed the Grey Stone--the very one we're sittin' on--if I loved you, an' wished to sarve you." "But who on earth could tell you this ?" she asked; "bekaise I thought no livin' bein' knew of it but myself and Donnel Dhu." "It was Sarah, his daughter," said Dalton; "but when I asked her why I should come to do so, she wouldn't tell me--she said if I wished to save you from evil, or at any rate from trouble.

That's a strange girl--his daughter," he added; "she makes one do whatever she likes." "Isn't she very handsome ?" said Mave, with an expression of admiration.
"I think she's without exception, the prettiest girl I ever seen; an' her beautiful figure beats all; but somehow they say every one's afraid of her, an' durstn't vex her." "She examined me well yesterday, at all events," replied Con.

"I thought them broad, black, beautiful eyes of hers would look through me.

Many a wager has been laid as to which is the handsomest--you or she; an' I know hundreds that 'ud give a great deal to see you both beside one another." "Indeed, an' she has it then," said Mave, "far an' away, in face, in figure, an' in everything." "I don't think so," he replied; "but at any rate not in everything--not in the heart, dear Mave--not in the heart." "They say she's kind hearted, then," replied Mave.
"They do," said Con, "an' I don't know how it comes; but somehow every one loves her, and every one fears her at the same time.