matrimonial paction--_compactum_ it is in the larned languages--in other
words--to condescend to your capacity--he who is married to you will be
a happy man. There is a juvenility about your eyes, and an efflorescence
of amaranthine odoriferousness about your cheeks and breath that are
enough to communicate the centrifugal motion to any brain adorned with
the slightest modicum of sentiment."

"He who marries me will be a happy man!" she exclaimed, repeating these
expressions, probably because they were the only words she understood.
"I hope so, Misther O'Shaughnessy. But, sure enough, who'd expect to
hear sich soft talk from the makins of a priest? Very well, sir! Upon
my word I'll be tellin' Father Finnerty that you do be spakin' up to the
girls!--Now!!"

"No, no, Miss Norah; you wouldn't do that merely for my sayin' that
you're the handsomest girl in the parish. Father Finnerty himself might
say as much, for it would be nothing but veracity--nothing but truth,
Miss Norah."

"Ah! but he wouldn't be pattin' me on the cheek! Be asy, Mr.
O'Shaughnessy; there's Darby Brady lookin' at you, an' he'll be
tellin'!"

"Where?" said Denis, starting.

The girl replied only by an arch laugh.

"Upon my classicality, Miss Norah, you're a rogue; there's nobody
lookin', you seraphim!"