And they followed the cows under the tall hedges.
"I shall be reaping to-morrow," he said. "I will see you at the same time."
And henceforth he was always at hand to help her to drive her cows home; and every night, as he sat with his father by the fire, Pat Phelan expected James to tell him about Catherine. One evening he came back overcome, looking so wretched that his father could see that Catherine had told him she would not marry him.
"She won't have me," he said.
"A man can always get a girl if he tries long enough," his father said, hoping to encourage him.
"That would be true enough for another. Catherine knows she will never get Peter. Another man might get her, but I'm always reminding her of Peter."
She told him the truth one day, that if she did not marry Peter she would marry no one, and James felt like dying. He grew pale and could not speak.
At last he said, "How is that?"
"I don't know. I don't know, James. But you mustn't talk to me about marriage again."
And he had to promise her not to speak of marriage again, and he kept his word. At the end of the year she asked him if he had any news of Peter.