"I don't like to tell you, Kate."
She pressed him to answer her, and he told her he was waiting for the priest. His mother had said he must marry, and the priest was coming to make up a marriage for him.
"Everything's mother's."
"That's true, Pat, and you'll give a message for me. Tell my mother-in-law that I've gone."
"She'll be asking me questions and I'll be sore set for an answer."
She looked at him steadily, but she left him without speaking, and he stood thinking.
He had had good times with her, and all such times were ended for him for ever. He was going to be married and he did not know to whom. Suddenly he remembered he had a message to deliver, and he went down to the M'Shanes' cabin.
"Ah, Mrs. M'Shane," he said, "it was a bad day for me when she married Peter. But this is a worse one, for we've both lost her."
"My poor boy will feel it sorely."
When Peter came in for his dinner his mother said: "Peter, she's gone, she's gone to America, and you're well rid of her."