She walked away quickly, and her mother said, "She's going with Pat Connex." But she had no thought of going to America with him. It was not until she met him a little further on, at the cross roads, that the thought occurred to her that he might like to go to America with her. She called him, and he came to her, and he looked a nice boy, but she thought he was better in Ireland. And the country seemed far away, though she was still in it, and the people too, though she was still among them. "I'm going to America, Pat." "You were married yesterday." "Yes, that was the priest's doing and mother's and I thought they knew best. But I'm thinking one must go one's way, and there's no judging for one's self here. That's why I'm going. You'll find some other girl, Pat." "There's not another girl like you in the village. We're a dead and alive lot. You stood up to the priest." "I didn't stand up to him enough. You're waiting for someone. Who are you waiting for?" "I don't like to tell you, Kate." She pressed him to answer her, and he told her he was waiting for the priest. His mother had said he must marry, and the priest was coming to make up a marriage for him. "Everything's mother's." "That's true, Pat, and you'll give a message for me. Tell my mother-in-law that I've gone." "She'll be asking me questions and I'll be sore set for an answer." She looked at him steadily, but she left him without speaking, and he stood thinking. He had had good times with her, and all such times were ended for him for ever. He was going to be married and he did not know to whom. Suddenly he remembered he had a message to deliver, and he went down to the M'Shanes' cabin. "Ah, Mrs. M'Shane," he said, "it was a bad day for me when she married Peter. But this is a worse one, for we've both lost her." "My poor boy will feel it sorely." When Peter came in for his dinner his mother said: "Peter, she's gone, she's gone to America, and you're well rid of her." "Don't say that, mother, I am not well rid of her, for there's no other woman in the world for me except her that's gone. Has she gone with Pat Connex?" "No, he said nothing about that, and it was he who brought the message." "I've no one, mother, to blame but myself. I was drunk last night, and how could she let a drunken fellow like me into her room." He went out to the backyard, and his mother heard him crying till it was time for him to go back to work. V As he got up to go to work he caught sight of Biddy M'Hale coming up the road; he rushed past her lest she should ask him what he was crying about, and she stood looking after him for a moment, and went into the cabin to inquire what had happened. "Sure she wouldn't let her husband sleep with her last night," said Mrs. M'Shane, "and you'll be telling the priest that. It will be well he should know it at once."