"Axes you! ah, there's little doubt of that; it's he that's ready and willing to ax you, now and always."
"Ah! Mr. McGovery, shure man, you're not bait yet! you wouldn't give in to Biddy that soon?"
Poor Denis was giving signs of having had enough of the amusement. There was a tolerably large fire on the hearth, near which he had been destined to perform his gyrations—which, if not very graceful, had, at any rate, been sufficiently active; and the exertion, heat, and dust were showing plainly on his shining countenance.
"Ah! Mr. McGovery," panted Biddy, "shure you're not down yet, and I only jist begun!"
"Indeed, then, Biddy, I am, and quite enough I've had, too, for one while. Here, Corney, come and take my place;" and Denis deposited a penny in a little wooden dish by the piper's side.
"By dad, Denis," said Corney, "you'll sleep to-night, any ways—to look at you."
"That's jist what he won't, then; for it'll be morning before he's in bed, and Mary'll have too much to say to him, when he is there, to let him sleep."
"Never mind, boys; do you dance, and I'll get myself a dhrink, for I'm choked with the dust;—and here's Mr. Thady. Why, Mr. Thady, why didn't you come in time for the supper, then?"
Just as Denis McGovery gave over dancing, Thady entered the house, having anything but a wedding countenance. He had been, since the time we parted from him after his interview with Keegan, lying in the stable, smoking. He had eaten nothing, but had remained meditating over the different things which conspired to make his heart sad.
His father's state—the impossibility of carrying on the war any longer against the enmity of Flannelly and Keegan—his own forlorn prospects—the insult and blow he had just received from the overbearing, heartless lawyer—but, above all, Feemy's condition, and his fears respecting her, were too much for him to bear. After his sister and Captain Ussher had left Ballycloran, he had gone up to the house and had swallowed a couple of glasses of raw whiskey, to drive, as he said to himself, the sorrow out of his heart; and he had now come down to seek the friends whom Brady had recommended to him, and determined, at whatever cost, to revenge himself, by their aid, against Keegan, for the insults he had heaped upon him, and against Ussher for the name which, he believed, he had put upon his sister.