"Oh, you are changed, most woefully, Kathleen, darlin'," she exclaimed,
kissing her tenderly; "but if you could only bear up now, time would set
everything right, and bring you about right, as it will still, I hope."
Her sister mused for some time, and then added--"I think I could bear
up yet if he was to stay in the country; but when I recollect that he's
going to another land--forever--I feel that my heart is broken: as it
is, his disgrace and that thought are both killin' me. To-morrow the
auction comes on, and then he goes--after that I will never see him. I'm
afraid, Hanna, that I'll have to go to bed; I feel that I'm hardly able
to sit up."
Hanna once more pressed her to her heart and wept.
"Don't cry, Hanna dear--don't cry for me; the bitterest part of my fate
will be partin' from you."
Hanna here pressed her again and wept aloud, whilst her spotless and
great-minded sister consoled her as well as she could. "Oh, what would
become of me!" exclaimed Hanna, sobbing; "if anything was to happen you,
or take you away from me, it would break my heart, too, and I'd die."
"Hanna," said her sister, not encouraging her to proceed any further on
that distressing subject; "on to-morrow, the time I allowed for Bryan
to clear himself, if he could, will be up, and I have only to beg that
you'll do all you can to prevent my father and mother from distressing
me about Edward Burke; I will never marry him, but I expect to see him
your husband yet, and I think he's worthy of you--that's saying a great
deal, I know.
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