PEG'S CHILDHOOD


And now Peg appears for the first time, and brings her radiant
presence, her roguish smile, her big, frank, soulful, blue eyes, her
dazzling red hair, her direct, honest and outspoken truth: her love
of all that is clean and pure and beautiful--Peg enters our pages
and turns what was a history of romance and drama into a Comedy, of
Youth.

Peg--pure as a mountain lily, sweet as a fragrant rose, haunting as
an old melody--Peg o' our Hearts comes into our story, even as she
entered her father's life, as the Saviour of these pages, even as
she was the means of saving O'Connell.

And she did save her father.

It was the presence and the thought of the little motherless baby
that kept O'Connell's hand from destroying himself when his reason
almost left him after his wife's death. The memories of the days
immediately following the passing of Angela are too painful to dwell
upon. They are past. They are sacred in O'Connell's heart. They will
be to the historian. Thanks to some kindly Irishmen who heard of
O'Connell's plight he borrowed enough money to bury his dead wife
and place a tablet to her memory.

He sent a message to Kingsnorth telling him of his sister's death.
He neither expected nor did he receive an answer.

As soon as it was possible he returned to Ireland and threw himself