Annie tossed her head.
“He don’t,” denied she. “And even if he did,” regretfully, “Pop wouldn’t like him any better.”
“An’ does not take till Goose?” inquired Owen.
“You know he don’t. And it’s all because Goose is in debt to Mr. O’Hara. Pop says he’ll never be able to keep a wife; and that he’ll be sold out.”
Owen saw the tears in the girl’s eyes, and said gently.
“Don’t mind, Annie. You’ll have him, never fear. Goose is a good b’y till his mother an’ that kind do have luck.”
“I’ll have to go now, Maggie,” said the grocer’s daughter. “Pop’s going to the Clan-na-Gael meeting to-night and I have to tend store.”
Annie had hardly left when Mason came, and he had barely been welcomed when Mary Carroll followed. The two men were left in the parlour to discuss the matter of Mason’s visit, while the girls withdrew to the sitting room upstairs.
“I could not delay telling you any longer, Maggie dear,” said Mary. “It came so sudden after poor Uncle Larry’s death that we have been keeping it a secret.”
“A secret?” exclaimed Maggie. “Tell me, quick.”