“How is this, Annorah?” asked Mrs. Lee, as she entered. “How happened you to return so soon?”
“I have not been home, an’ ye please, ma’am.”
“Are you not going to-night?” asked Annie, raising her head from her pillow, and noticing, with a little anxiety, the unusual expression of her attendant’s face.
“It’s Phelim, my brother, miss, has been here, and it’s a house full o’ company there is at home.”
“And they want you to spend the holy Sabbath to-morrow in visiting them, I suppose.”
“No, Miss Annie.”
“What then?” asked Mrs. Lee, after a moment’s silence.
“Nothing to speak of, ma’am. Leastways nothing to trouble ye about.”
“But I can see that it is something that troubles you, Norah,” said Annie, taking the rough hand of Annorah in hers, and drawing her nearer. “Is it something that you would rather I should not know?”
“Indeed no. But it’s loath I am to add my bit troubles to yours, when ye suffer yer own so patiently. It’s only that all my relatives, and the praste, and the Catholic neighbours, are waiting for me to come home, to bring me back to the ould Church by force. An’ Phelim, poor boy, came to tell me to keep away. It’s worse he’ll be for the damp air; and it’s angry they’ll be for my staying away.”