Such was the state of her feelings on the day when Kate Hogan and her
male relatives indulged in the friendly and affectionate dialogue we
have just detailed. Her heart was smitten, in fact, with sorrow for the
harsh part she had taken against her lover, and she only waited for
an opportunity to pour out a full confession of all she felt into the
friendly ear of her sister.
Gerald Cavanagh's family at this period was darkened by a general spirit
of depression and gloom. Their brother James, from whatever cause it may
have proceeded, seemed to be nearly as much cast down as his sister; and
were it not that Cavanagh himself and his wife sustained themselves by a
hope that Kathleen might ultimately relax so far as to admit, as she had
partly promised to do, the proposals of Edward Burke, it would have
been difficult to find so much suffering apart from death under the same
roof.
On the day in question, our friend O'Finigan, whose habits of
intemperance had by no means diminished, called at Cavanagh's, as he had
been in the habit of doing. Poor Kathleen was now suffering, besides,
under the consequences of the injunction not to mention M'Mahon's name,
which she had imposed upon her own family--an injunction which they had
ever since faithfully observed. It was quite evident from the unusually
easy fluency of O'Finigan's manner, that he had not confined his
beverages, during the day, to mere water.
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