"Sure ye haven't, dear?" said her aunt persuasively. "Tell the poor foolish fellow that ye haven't, an' then he'll be puttin' it altogether out of his head."
Elleney raised her eyes and looked at Pat, and then dropped them again.
"He's the only one in the wide world that cares for me," she said, with a quivering lip.
"Bless us and save us!" gasped Mrs. McNally. "If that's the way it is, Pat, ye'd best be off with yourself."
Pat turned as red as a cherry, and then as white as his own flour.
"Miss Elleney, dear," he whispered, "d'ye know what ye're sayin'? D'ye know I'm such a great big fool that I'm beginning to think the most outrageous nonsense. I'll be beginnin' to think soon, me jewel, that ye might some day be gettin' a bit fond o' me, an' maybe say Yes when I ax ye a question. Sure ye didn't think of that, alanna?"
"Will ye whisht, ye impident fellow?" cried Mrs. McNally angrily. "Of course she thought o' no such thing."
Elleney turned her sweet eyes deprecatingly towards her aunt, and murmured very faintly—
"I don't know—I—I think I did."