sister you are? Is the young headstrong profligate beating you, Maura,
eh?"

"No, Hugh, not that; but he wants the kay to deck himself up for
marrying that pot of his. God knows, I'd rather he did beat me than do
what he's going to do."

"Felix," said his brother, "I'm over you in place of your father, and
I tell you that it'll cost me a sore fall, or I'll put a stop to this
day's work. A purty bridegroom you are, and a 'sponsible father of a
family you'll make! By my sowl, it's a horsewhip I ought to take to you,
and lash all thoughts of marriage out of you. What a hurry you are in
to go a shoolin' (to become the rustic _chevalier d'industrie_). You
had betther provide yourself the bag and staff at once, for if you marry
this portionless, good-for-nothing hussy----"

Felix's eye flashed, and, for the first time in his life, he turned a
fierce glance upon his brother.

"She's no hussy, Hugh; and if another man said it----" he paused, for it
was but the 'hectic of a moment.'

"You'd knock him down, I suppose," said Hugh. "Why don't you speak it
out? Why, Maura, he's a man on our hands, and I suppose he'll be a bully
to-morrow, or next day, and put us all under his feet, and make us all
knuckle down to his poppet of a wife."

"Hugh," said Felix, "I am willin to forget and forgive all the harshness
ever you showed me, and to remimber nothing but your kindness, and you
wor kind, to me; you're my brother--my only, and my eldest brother,