So she let her little hand lie in Jack's manly palm as she gave a sort of consent, enjoying in a fashion the romance of being engaged to such a fine fellow whilst she was barely eighteen.
What a talk there would be! What congratulations from everybody! And lots of them would not be real; but, anyway, for a while, Jeannie knew that she would be the great centre of interest in and around Ballycorene. She wondered how Norah would look when she called.
This engagement took place just two months after Jeannie's return, and about the middle of June. Jack would have been perfectly happy but for certain twinges of conscience concerning Norah Guiness. He could not recall the conversation with Mr. Bellew, and feel comfortable. He had told nothing but the truth in reply to that gentleman's questions, yet he knew that he had not told the whole truth. Hitherto, anything like duplicity had been foreign to Jack's nature, and he had many a bad quarter of an hour when he looked into the past and when absent from Jeannie. With her, he forgot all but herself, and what a happy fellow he was to have won such a charming creature.
A true-hearted girl can picture for herself what Norah Guiness would feel at this time. A small, vain, selfish nature could never realise such a trial, and an attempt to describe it would be lost time.
How the girl schooled herself into outward calmness; how she prayed for the power to repress every angry and envious thought against Jack Corry and Jeannie; how she strove to fill up time and thoughts by caring, if possible, more and better for her father and the boys, may be named but not described.
If there was one ray of comfort for her, surely she had it in the knowledge that during all those past months when Jack had seemed to find his chief happiness in her society, she could recall no word or act of her own that gave her cause for regret, or that was unbecoming a pure-minded girl.
She determined to go to Benvora, see Jeannie, and offer her good wishes.
"Thank God, I can do that in all sincerity!" she said to herself.
On the way she met Jack and Jeannie, and in sight of two of the most arrant gossips Ballycorene could boast, was enabled to lift her honest face to theirs, shake hands with each, and say the kind words she had meant to say in a less public place.
The worst seemed over now they had met. Jeannie was effusively affectionate to Nora, Jack vastly cheered by her calmness and the smile with which she succeeded in meeting his somewhat conscious looks. Then, as Norah declined to go on to Benvora, the others, who were going in her direction, joined her, and they walked together until they reached her home.