Indeed I did know her, for Mary Kenyon had been one of my dearest friends, and only a few short months before the grave had closed over her—the beautiful and the good.
“Well,” continued Bridget, “after a bit I got mother two nice first-floor rooms, at the corner of the street where she lived; and in the front one she opened a little store, which kept her nicely.”
But now came the romance—the love-story of good, innocent Bridget’s life. Her lover was the good, kind-hearted sailor who had been so interested in them when widow Kerevan landed. He came to see them as he had promised, and though Bridget and the widow thought that Gracey’s pretty curls and bright eyes brought him so often “o’ evenin’s,” they soon found out it was the good Bridget he was after.
“It’s three years now gone, since we were ingaged,” said Bridget, “and nearly that since I have seen or heerd tell of him,” and she sighed heavily.
“Where did he go to, Bridget?”
“Why, ma’am, he went in a states government vessel to the Ingees, and he said he’d write to me; but I’ve niver had a line from him since he sailed. He writ a letter to me at Norfolk town just before he went off, and told me to love him true ’til he came back, then we’d be man and wife. Mother long since wanted me to take another beau, for she sez I’m gettin’ old, and bein’ plain like, nobody will have me, then I’ll be an old maid that nobody likes or cares for; but I’d sooner be an old maid, than brake my vow to Patrick; and even Father Shane has scolded mother and Gracey about it, for they both taze me—and he sez I’m right.”
“How do you mean break your vow, Bridget?”
“Why you see, Miss Enna, both Patrick and I loved old Ireland so much that we rigilarly ingaged ourselves, like the people used to in the old country.”
“How was that, my child?”
“Patrick takes a Prayer-book the night before he went away, and stood in the middle of mother’s room, and swore on it by the holy cross, that he niver would marry any woman but me, Bridget Kerevan; och, but his oath was so solemn and beautiful, it made me tremble all over. Then he puts the Prayer-book in my lap, and we took hold of each other’s hands over it, and I made the same vow, and then we both kissed the book. Mother and Gracey were by and heerd it all. How can I, then, Miss Enna, even if I wanted to, take another beau? And I’m sure if any thing happens to him I shall niver want another beau, for he was my first real one, and he seemed to come right in Elsie’s place like in my heart.”