His
body was cast on the sands close to the spot where Donal dragged the
net from the waves. There was sorrow afresh through the village:
Kennedy was a favourite; and his mother was left childless. No son
would any more come sauntering in with his long slouch in the
gloamin'; and whether she would ever see him again--to know him--who
could tell! For the common belief does not go much farther than
paganism in yielding comfort to those whose living loves have
disappeared--the fault not of Christianity, but of Christians.
The effect of the news upon Forgue I have some around for
conjecturing: I believe it made him care a little less about
marrying the girl, now that he knew no rival ready to take her; and
feel also that he had one enemy the less, one danger the less, in
the path he would like to take. Within a week after, he left the
castle, and if his father knew where he went, he was the only one
who did. He had been pressing him to show some appearance of
interest in his cousin; Forgue had professed himself unequal to the
task at present: if he might go away for a while, he said, he would
doubtless find it easier when he returned.
The storms were over, the edges and hidden roots had begun to dream
of spring, and Arctura had returned to her own room to sleep, when
one afternoon she came to the schoolroom and told Donal she had had
the terrible dream again.
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