Oh,
Bryan M'Mahon, can you be what is said of you! and, if you can, oh, why
did we ever meet, or why did I ever see you!"
Her sister Hanna attempted to console her, but for once she failed.
Kathleen would hear no comfort, for she said she stood in need of none.
"My mind is all dark," said she, "or rather it is sick of this miserable
work. Why am I fastened upon by such suffering and distraction? Don't
attempt at present to console me, Hanna; I won't, because I can't be
consoled. I wish I knew this man--whether he is honest or not. If he is
the villain they say he is, and that with a false mask upon him, he has
imposed himself on me, and gained my affections by hypocrisy and deceit,
why, Hanna, my darling sister, I could stab him to the heart. To think
that I ever should come to love a villain that could betray his church,
his country, me--and take a bribe; yes, he has done it," she proceeded,
catching fire from the force of her own detestation of what was wrong.
"Here, Hanna, I call back my words--I give him no further warning than
he has got: he knows the time, the greater part of it is past, and has
he ever made a single attempt to clear himself? No, because he cannot.
I despise him; he is unworthy of me, and I fear he ever was. Here,
father," she said with vehemence, "listen to me, my dear father; and
you, my mother, beloved mother, hear me! At the expiration of three
weeks I will marry Edward Burke; he is a modest, and I think an
honest young man, who would not betray his religion nor his country,
nor--nor--any unhappy girl that might happen to love him; oh, no, he
would not--and so, after three weeks--I will marry him.
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