There she’s off now! And I must after her, else she’ll spoil her market, and my own. But look ye, now--if I shouldn’t find her agreeable to marry this Mr. Gilbert, the man I’ve laid out for her, why here’s a good stick that will bring her to rason in the last resort; for there’s no other way of rasoning with Ferrinafad. [_Exit CHRISTY._ SCENE IV. _The Garden of the Widow LARKEN’S Cottage._ _OWEN and MABEL._ _Owen._ How does my mother bear the disappointment, Mabel about the inn? _Mabel._ Then to outward appearance she did not take it so much to heart as I expected she would. But I’m sure she frets inwardly--because she had been in such hopes, and in such spirits, and so proud to think how well her children would all be settled. _Owen._ Oh, how sorry I am I told her in that hurry the good news I heard, and all to disappoint her afterwards, and break her heart with it! _Mabel._ No, she has too good a heart to break for the likes. She’ll hold up again after the first disappointment--she’ll struggle on for our sakes, Owen. _Owen._ She will: but Mabel dearest, what do you think of Gilbert? _Mabel._ (_turning away_) I strive not to think of him at all. _Owen._ But sure I was not wrong there--he told me as much as that he loved you. _Mabel._ Then he never told me that much. _Owen._ No! What, not when he walked with you to the well? _Mabel._ No. What made you think he did? _Owen._ Why, the words he said about you when he met me, was--where’s your sister Mabel? Gone to the well, Gilbert, says I. And do you think a man that has a question to ask her might make bold to step after her? says he. Such a man as you--why not? says I. Then he stood still, and twirled a rose he held in his hand, and he said nothing, and I no more, till he stooped down, and from the grass where we stood pulled a sprig of clover. Is not this what _you_ call shamrock? says he. It is, says I. Then he puts the shamrock along with the rose--How would _that_ do? says he. _Mabel._ Did he say that, Owen? _Owen._ Yes, or how would they look together? or, would they do together? or some words that way; I can’t be particular to the word--you know, he speaks different from us; but that surely was the sense; and I minded too, he blushed up to the roots, and I pitied him, and answered-- _Mabel._ Oh, what did you answer? _Owen._ I answered and said, I thought they’d do very well together; and that it was good when the Irish shamrock and the English rose was united. _Mabel._ (_hiding her face with her hands_) Oh, Owen, that was too plain. _Owen._ Plain! Not at all--it was not. It’s only your tenderness makes you feel it too plain--for, listen to me, Mabel. (_Taking her hand from her face._) Sure, if it had any meaning particular, it’s as strong for Miss Gallagher as for any body else. _Mabel._ That’s true:--and may be it was that way he took it,--and may be it was her he was thinking of--