Simple child! She, of course, had not the slightest suspicion that she was in any way concerned in the poet's prolonged tarrying at Dalky. Innocence is a truly beautiful thing, and that it is not more popular is much to be regretted.
"Keeping me?" repeated Moore. "Nothing but my heart, mavourneen."
"Indeed? Who has it in their possession, if it is no longer in yours?"
"You, Bessie," answered Moore, earnestly. "And pray do not return it. After being in your keeping, no other woman would satisfy it, and I 'd have no peace at all. Ah, alanna, when I left Dublin, weary and discouraged at my failure to sell my poetry, and came to this quiet country place in search of rest, it is little I dreamed I would run across such a girl as you. You have put new thoughts in my head, Bessie. My soul is not the same at all."
Touched by the tenderness of his tone, the girl grew sober in her turn.
"And you must go, Tom?" she asked, regretfully.
"I have my fortune to make, Bessie. Why, mavourneen, I have n't a penny of my own."
"And no pennies of anybody else's?"
Moore smiled broadly.
"How could I have?" said he. "I never went to school here. I don't know the system like your pupils."