“Mother!” expostulated Paddy.
“More she didn’t,” continued the mother, vexed at her son’s cool reception of their good news as she deemed it. “She didn’t find new young mates, and forget the mother that bore her!”
“Mother!” said Patrick, “ye sent me away, ye know ye did. Sure I’d not gone to the Queen’s palace asself, but ye sent me away, so you did.”
“Thrue for you, Patrick!” said Ellen, breaking in to keep the peace. “Thrue for you; and more be token of that we’ll welcome you back again. Your service is up, come Easter, and then we’ll all cross the wide sea together!”
Poor Patrick! All the various modes in which he had conned over his intended communication were put to flight in a moment. This was no time to speak of any such proposals—for with half an eye to such a contingency, Patrick knew his mother had spoken. Never had the way back seemed so long to Patrick as it did that night. He had committed himself by no engagement to go with his family to the new land over sea; but he saw that they all chose to take his going for granted. The children supposed it of course, thinking of nothing else; and the elders deemed it the best way to admit no question. Norah listened in vain that night for Paddy’s cheerful whistle as he neared the house. She wondered, and fell asleep. But there was no sleep for Patrick.
Norah was too diffident to ask Patrick how he sped the next day—but didn’t she burn to know! At length, and with a very sad face, he told her all except his mother’s covert and undeserved reproaches. Norah listened with a tear in her eye, for she could not dissemble. She did not interrupt him, and when he ceased, she said:
“Sure you’ll go with them, Patrick, dear!”
“Sure I’ll do no such thing, Norah, darling!” And he hugged her to his heart with a suddenness which she could not foresee, and an energy she could not resist, had she wished it.
——