"But if there's no harum, I ask it now; where were you getting the collar?"
"Well, you're very queer; but if you must know, Captain Ussher brought it with him from Mohill."
"And if you wanted a parcel from Mohill, why couldn't you let Brady bring it, who is in it constantly, instead of that upstart policeman, who'd think it more condescension to bring that from Mohill, than I would to be carrying a sack of potatoes so far."
"There then you're wrong; the policeman, as you're pleased to call him, thinks no such thing."
"Well, Feemy, but did you bid him bring it, or did he bring it of his own accord?"
Feemy could now shuffle no longer, so blushing slightly, she said, "Well, if you must know then, it was a present; and there's no such great harm in that, I suppose."
Here Thady was again bothered; he really did not know whether there was any harm in it or not; a week ago he certainly would have thought not, but he was now inclined to think that there was; but he was not sure, and he sadly wished for Father John to tell him what to do.
"Well, Thady, now what was it you were wanting of me?"—and then after a pause, she added, her courage rising as she saw her brother's falling: "Was it anything about Captain Ussher?"
"Yes, it was."
"Well?"