Phelim Otoole's Courtship and Other Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
General
Phelim Otoole's Courtship and Other Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
On the evening of the wedding-day, about the hour of ten o'clock,
Neal--whose spirits were uncommonly exalted, for his heart luxuriated
within him--danced with his bride's maid; after the dance he sat beside
her, and got eloquent in praise of her beauty; and it is said, too, that
he whispered to her, and chucked her chin with considerable gallantry.
The tete-a-tete continued for some time without exciting particular
attention, with one exception; but that exception was worth a whole
chapter of general rules. Mrs. Malone rose up, then sat down again, and
took off a glass of the native; she got up a second time--all the wife
rushed upon her heart--she approached them, and in a fit of the most
exquisite sensibility, knocked the bride's maid down, and gave the
tailor a kick of affecting pathos upon the inexpressibles. The whole
scene was a touching one on both sides. The tailor was sent on all-fours
to the floor; but Mrs. Malone took him quietly up, put him under her arm
as one would a lap dog, and with stately step marched him away to the
connubial, apartment, in which everything remained very quiet for the
rest of the night.
The next morning Mr. O'Connor presented himself to congratulate the
tailor on his happiness. Neal, as his friend shook hands with him, gave
the schoolmaster's fingers a slight squeeze, such as a man gives who
would gently entreat your sympathy. The schoolmaster looked at him, and
thought he shook his head. Of this, however, he could not be certain;
for, as he shook his own during the moment of observation, he concluded
that it might be a mere mistake of the eye, or perhaps the result of a
mind predisposed to be credulous on the subject of shaking heads.
We wish it were in our power to draw a veil, or curtain, or blind of
some description, over the remnant of the tailor's narrative that is to
follow; but as it is the duty of every faithful historian to give
the secret causes of appearances which the world in general do not
understand, so we think it but honest to go on, impartially and
faithfully, without shrinking from the responsibility that is frequently
annexed to truth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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