The Story of Dan

Front matter

THE STORY OF DAN IN A NORTH COUNTRY VILLAGE. By M. E. FRANCIS, AUTHOR OF " WHITHER? " CROWN 8VO, CLOTH, 3S. 6D. A thenœum.—" The whole book is so good that it ought to be read from cover to cover." Academy.— "Charmingly written." Saturday Review.—" Drawn with such skill and sympathy as recal! the art ofCrabbe himself." Pall Mall Gazette,—" A book for laughter and for tear:,, a book worthy to stand side by side with Cranford." Christian World. — "The author has given us a north country ' Thrums.' " Catholic Times, — " If there is likeness between Miss Mitford's and Mrs. Francis's productions, there is yet greater difference, and the difference is in favour ofthe modem writer." Catholic Neivs. — "The fragrancy of new-mown hay and the meadow-sweet linger round its pages." Star. — "A series of dainty genre pictures as fresh and as picturesque as the life they depict so truly and so admirably."

Manchester Guardian.— "The stories never drag, but are told with spirit and 'go.' " Scotsman— "The sketches of local celebrities, characters, and tradition are really charming." THE STORY OF DAN BY M. E. FRANCIS AUTHOR OF "IN A NORTH COUNTRY VILLAGE," " WHITHER?" ETC. LONDON OSGOOD, McILVAINE & CO. 45 ALBEMARLE STREET, W. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. mothers' TALK I II. ESTHER ....... 16 III. "WHEREFORE IF YOU KNOW OF ANY IMPEDI- MENT" 34 IV. DEALINGS WITH " THE QUALITY " . . 58 V. AN ESTHER "GLITTERING IN ROYAL ROBES" 79 VI. DAN PUTS HIS FATE TO THE TEST . . 95 VII. MOONLIGHTERS 114 VIII. DAN CONSULTS ANOTHER ORACLE . . I28 IX. DREAMS I45 X. AWAKENING l66 XI. IN TRIBULATION 183 XII. "THE FEAST OF REASON AND THE FLOW OF SOUL " I98 XIII. THE CRIME OF AN INNOCENT . . . 223 XIV. MURDER WILL OUT 24O XV. AT BAY 269 XVI. TWO TRIBUNALS THE STORY OF DAN

Chapter I Mothers' Talk

" My little boy is a very good little boy," said Mrs. Drennan, "as long as he doesn't go marryin' on me." The very notion of such a contingency communicated a tremulous motion to the wide frilling of her big white cap, and a sudden accession of colour to her already ruddy face. " An' why would he do that ? " returned her sympathetic neighbour Mrs. Green. " Sure it's too well off he is now, wid' a beautiful stone house to live in, and on'y himself and you in it, not to mintion the comfort ye keep him in." A DAN 2 Mrs. Drennan looked modestly round at the mansion alluded to, which was about six yards away from the stile beside which she and her friend were conversing. It was a two-roomed cottage solidly built, and recently thatched, with a little monthly rose-tree clambering over the stone wall beside the door-way, and an attempt at a garden in front, where a few stocks and the remains of some mignonette bloomed amid the cabbages and potatoes.

A cheerful flicker of firelight gleamed through the open doorway,and Mrs. Drennan's thoughts dwelt with some complacency on the order and cosiness within. A hot grriddle-cake was, she knew, at that very moment browning on the hearthstone, the earthen floor was swept as clean as clean could be, the plates and tea-cups on the dresser were polished till they shone again, the " forms " or settles were guiltless of even a speck of dust, and no one would guess that the big brown cupboard in the corner was the "turn-up" bedstead in which her " little boy " reposed after the labours of the day. Mrs. Drennan was a thrifty woman, and she felt that her friend's eulogy was well deserved. " Well, it's only the thruth to say that I do all I can for him, and he desarves it too, for there never was a betther son.

Lookit here, Mrs. Green, every shillin' that lad earns he brings home to me. I says to him wanst, says I, ' Dan,' says I, 'sure ye needn't give me all,' says I, 'keep some of it for yourself,' says I, 'as the other boys do about.' An' he up an' he says to me, he says, ' No, mother,' he says, ' I'll niver do that,' he says. ' Me father ga' me the example of bringin' home his earnin's to you,' he says, 'an' sure the money couldn't be in betther hands.' Ah, he said that, God bless him, an' indeed his poor father — God be merciful to him " "Ah, thrue for ye, Mrs. Drennan!" interrupted Mrs. Green somewhat hastily, for she knew that, once started on this subject, her neighbour's eloquence was a DAN 4 trifle overpowering, and, her curiosity on the subject ofthe good little boy's "goin's on " being fairly aroused, she had already listened to the enumeration of his perfec tions with some impatience.

" Me husband — God be merciful to him," resumed Mrs. Drennan, in a rather higher key, so as to drown any attempted inter ruption, " gev him the example, an' a care fuller nor a betther man niver stepped. When he'd come home from Mass on a Sunday, I assure ye he'd take off his good clothes, every wan of them, shirt an' all, he would," pausing after this somewhat remarkable assertion to wipe her eyes on her apron, and to indulge in a loud sniff, but hastening to pursue her discourse lest her friend might take an unfair advantage of such emotion. " An' he'd fould them up, an' brush them, an' put them in the dhrawer, an' put on his ould clothes agin, for fear, he'd say, that they'd be gettin' wore out before himself." " Och then, we know he was a saint entirely," put in Mrs. Green with a sympathetic sniff, and a back-handed wipe of her eyes as a tribute to the dear departed.

" Sure we'll niver see his likes agin, niver ! But what call have ye to be talkin' about Dan getting marrid ! Troth, it's no notion he has o' that at all. We all know that," she added cunningly. " Sure Dan's the very cut of a bachelor — the very cut o' wan, so he is ! " Mrs. Drennan jerked her apron down again suddenly, and stopped the rocking to and fro with which she had been soothing the grief evoked by the affecting memory aforesaid. " Heth, an' he is not ! " she returned with gathering ire at what she deemed a slur on her boy. " The girls doesn't think so annyhow " — with -intense meaning — "maybe if ye was to ax some o' them, ye'd hear different to that." " Oh then, maybe I would," assented the other, whose curiosity induced her to over look her friend's resentment. " I'm no DAN talker as is well beknown, an' it's always me that's the last to hear annythin'.

An' who 'ud I be axin' ? I'm sure there'd not be a ha'porth o' good in axin' Mary Brady " " Mary Brady ! " interrupted Mrs. Dren nan, " Mary Brady indeed ! " "Sure that's what I'm sayin' — Dan wouldn't even look at her. As for Judy up beyant there — she's a stale girl, so she is — I'm thinkin' it wouldn't be her ayther." " I'm not sayin' it's annybody," broke in Mrs. Drennan with sudden warmth, " but I'm sayin' there's manny a wan, manny an' manny a wan, that 'ud jump at Dan, ay, just sump at him, an' that know how to let him know they would too, Mrs. Green, for all he's the cut of a bachelor " — this with withering sarcasm. " I tell ye what — he has no more the looks of a bachelor than ye have yerself — now ! " Mrs. Green, the portly mother of many children, felt the irony of this remark acutely, and angry words would doubtless have ensued, had not the discussion been brought to a close by the sudden appearance of Dan himself.

The two ladies had been so much absorbed by their conversa tion that they had not noticed his approach till he was within a few yards of them. Not much to look at after all for such a hero. About middle height, with a sun burnt, beardless face, unusually boyish for his twenty-four years ; dark hair, irregular features — a face in fact only redeemed from the absolutely commonplace by the expression of the eyes. These were of the brilliant,black-fringed blue to be seen every where in Ireland, and only in their expression did they differ from those of thousands of Dan's countryfolk. They were as the eyes of a little child ; so frank, so trustful, so innocent was their gaze. For the rest he was, outwardly seeming, a typical Irish peasant. Education at the time of which I speak — thirty years ago — was little known in his part of the world, and Dan could not even write his name.

He was deeply DAN religious, scrupulously honest, hardworking even, as the times went, though he did not think himself obliged to doff his coat during his daily labour, and the gait with which he now drew near his home had in it much of the slouch exasperating to the Saxon. "Sure here's himself!" cried Mrs. Dren nan, all her irritation forgotten at the sight, and her square wrinkled face wreathed in smiles. " Why, it's airly ye are this evenin', Dan ! " " I made haste home," returned Dan. " Good evenin', Mrs. Green ; I didn't see it was you wid the sun in me eyes — I made haste home, mother, for they're goin' to burn the furze up by Hopall, and it'll be a grand sight, they say. I'm thinkin' of goin' up there afther a bit." His mother's face clouded over. " Hothin' it 'ud be betther for ye to stay quiet, wid yer mother, afther yer day's work than to be goin' off thrampin' over the hills that-away.

Sure ye've seen the furze burnin' often enough. If ye were left alone, ye wouldn't be thinkin' o' that." " Have ye e'er a cup o' tay for me ?" put in Dan, adroitly turning the conversa tion, which evidently threatened to take an unpleasant turn. " Then, glory be to God ! if I haven't left the cake on the griddle all this time. It'll be a cinder as sure as I'm here, an' carraways in it an' all ! " and housewifely instincts being stronger in Mrs. Drennan than even maternal jealousy, she hastened into the cottage with all the speed she could muster. Dan followed her, closing the door after him ; and Mrs. Green, still devoured with curiosity, was reluctantly obliged to retire to her own abode, where the pigs and the children were alike clam ouring for their supper. Mr. Green was leaning over the half door, smoking his pipe and anxiously expecting his spouse.

" Musha, where' ve ye been this long while ? " he asked somewhat irritably. DAN 10 " The childer's wild for the want of a bit, and the babby itself is bawlin' ! " " I've on'y been beyant at Mrs. Drennan's," returned his better-half with praiseworthy coolness as she entered, catching up the baby who was yelling itself hoarse on its elder sister's knee ; and turning children and chickens (who alike surrounded her) summarily out-of doors till their evening meal was ready. "Whisht! me heart's scalded wid yez all. Reach me the pot, Honnie ; that's it undher your Da's coat, an' the male's there wid the tallow candles in the corner Come here, ye little turk ye, an' have done wid yer noise." " They're goin' to burn the furze up at Hopall," remarked Green senior, knock ing the ashes out of his pipe, and dis missing with a kick or two an inquisitive pig which was about to enter the open door.

" I'm goin' up there as soon as I've had a bit o' supper." " I hard Dan Drennan sayin' just now that he was goin'," replied Mrs. Green. " His mother was mad, so she was. She was talkin' of Dan's gettin' marrid a while ago, an' was goin' to kill me for sayin' he was the cut of a bachelor." " Hothin' sorra bit of a bachelor Dan is ! " returned her husband. " It'll not be long before we'll be hearin' him called, I'm thinkin' ! Him an' Esther Daly has been coortin' this long while." " Esther Daly ! " cried Mrs. Green in astonishment. " Esther Daly ! " she re peated shrilly. " That bould, impident thing ! Sure, Dan 'ud niver look at her, wid her daft brother an' all. Troth, an' ye're out there, Mike ! " "All the same it's as plain as the nose on me face," retorted Mike ; and as that feature was broken, besides being deeply indented with small-pox, the fact in ques tion must have been very plain indeed.

" Hasn't Esther been workin' in the garden beyant " — jerking his thumb over his shoulder — " all the summer, an' isn't it DAN 12 Dan that's foreman in it since the Masther turned away Casey ? Faith, if Dan's goin' to get marrid it's to Esther herself, for I seen wid me own two eyes the way she was goin' on wid him." "Well, maybe so," said Mrs. Green meditatively. "His mother did say there was girls that was ready to jump at Dan. But for a dacent, quiet fella like him to be takin' up wid the likes of her ! Well, well, there's no tellin' what quare things people will be doin' ! An' is Esther goin' up to Hopall this evenin' ? " "As I was comin' up the road past their house, I hard her callin' afther him," returned Green, lifting the pot off the fire and unceremoniously helping himself to a large plateful of stirabout.

" ' Don't be late, Dan,' she says, 'now mind. I'll be even wid ye if ye are,' she says, so I'm thinkin' if they're not sweethearts that looks quare." " I've a good mind to go up to Hopall meself an' have a look at them," cried his wife with much animation. " Here child her, come in an' have your suppers. Hurry up now, Honnie, I'll be wantin' you to mind the child for me till I come back." "I'm goin' up to see the furze burnin' meself," cried Honnie rebelliously, tossing back the shock masses of black hair which hung over her face, and glancing defiantly at her mother. " I'm tired nursin' him all day, so I am. Wan o' the others may stop at home wid him now." "Was there ever such a bould, ungrate ful child ? " ejaculated Mrs. Green, pausing spoon in hand, while the younger members of the family fought for the stirabout.

" I declare my heart's broke wid her. Look at her there goin' on ten year ould, her that ought to be a comfort to me now — does she say, as a good daugh ter ought, 'I'll rack me head" (with a severe glance at Honnie's unkempt tresses) "an' mind the child, an' help me mother?' Does she say that? Indeed DAN 14 she does not. Look at her, wid that head that hasn't been racked this three days, an' listen to the way she spakes — ye bould lump, ye!" brandishing the spoon threateningly. " Sure she didn't mean it — did ye, Honnie ? " put in the father good-naturedly. " I'll engage she'll stop at home as she's bid an' mind the child as well as yerself — won't ye now, Honnie ? " Honnie jerked back her shaggy locks again, and ate her stirabout without vouch safing any rejoinder. " Ah then, maybe she will," acquiesced Mrs. Green with a sudden change of tone, "she knows I don't dar' thrust the child wid annyone o'ny herself — she knows that, so she does, an' she'll stop quiet at home an' mind him for me."

"Heth I won't!" cried Honnie, who had now finished her supper. " I've minded him long enough, an' I'm goin' off out o' this now." And before any one could stop her she sprang out of the cabin, and bounded down the lane like a young antelope. "Ah, ye little schamer, ye!" shouted Mrs. Green, running to the door, " I'll be murtherin' ye intirely when I get a' hoult of ye ! — she's gone now," she added philo sophically, returning to her half-consumed meal, "so there's no £Ood talkin' to her. Heth I b'lieve Johnny's awake ! Maybe I'll take him along wid me." Accordingly the entire Green family set off for Hopall, when the greater part of the stirabout had been consumed, and the pot containing the remainder had been set down on the doorstep the better to enable the pig to perform the office of scullery maid.

Chapter II Esther

A wide stretch of furze-covered land, bounded on one side by a noble belt of fir trees, and open on the other to a view such as is so often to be seen in Ireland. A very ocean of hills, billow ing one above the other, and varying in hue from tenderest green to lovely violet, the dusky distant waves being almost lost in the imperial purple of the evening sky. The sun had not yet disappeared behind them, and like a gracious sovereign of old was scattering largess with a lavish hand before with drawing. Gold streaked the heavens, glittered in the distant streams, gleamed among the yellowing ears of the hillside ESTHER 17 cornfields, nay, covered even the miserable white-washed cabins that peeped out from amid the hedges with dazzling glory. Suddenly another glory, ruddier, more earthly, sprang up in attempted rivalry at the very feet of the little crowd which watched for it, and a sheet of flame spread over the furze-covered plateau and crept along the crackling bushes, resplendent with a milder glow but a few weeks before.

" Hooray ! " cried the little Greens, and a score more of their kind, while their elders, standing about in groups, discussed more weighty matters, such as the "iligant pasture " that would now be open to Mr. Keogh's sheep, and how "mad" it would make the Master of the Hounds and the Lord. This term had no spiritual signifi cance but merely referred to the owner of the adjacent property. Mrs. Green, with "Johnnie" the baby, sitting up very bright and perky in her arms, wandered from one to the other, her B DAN tongue wagging with inconceivable swift ness, and her eyes roving anxiously round in search of Dan and his beloved. " That's them, sure enough," she said to herself, as she caught sight of a couple standing side by side a little apart from the others ; and she moved a step or two nearer.

Yes, that was Dan ; there was no mis taking the slight well-made figure, the peculiar shape of the hat which he wore tilted slightly back on his head, and the neat attire. Mrs. Green's eyes were quickly turned away from him, however, that they might rest on his companion. A tall girl with unusual grace of figure ; lithe and slim, with her head set proudly on her shoulders, and features clearly cut, one would say almost statuesque, were it not for the ever-varying expression which flitted across them. As she stood thus between the waning glory in the sky, the growing glory at her feet, her beauty was enhanced by the glamour of the scene and hour. The ruddy glow made luminous ESTHER 19 her nut-brown hair, which was twisted up artistically, if untidily enough, round her small head, increased the colour in her cheeks, and lit up those wonderful blue-grey eyes of hers with a witchery of its own.

Her shapely feet were bare, and her print sun-bonnet was slung carelessly on her arm, her stuff petticoat was clumsily patched here and there, and her pink cotton jacket ragged and not over clean. But the grace in every movement, the ease of her attitude, the carriage of her head, would have done credit to a duchess : only in Ireland could so many inconsistencies have been moulded into so charming a whole. Dan, with his honest face bright with unusual excitement, and his blue eyes shining with eagerness, was talking in a low voice ; the girl every now and then making some laughing rejoinder. Her laugh was another contradiction ; delightful to look at, sparkling as it did round eyes and mouth, and bringing the most DAN 20 cunning and unexpected dimples to light, but, if truth be told, neither musical nor refined in sound.

Esther's laugh was a sort of crow, loud, shrill, indescribably vulgar in tone ; yet in Dan's ears it rang pleasantly as the murmur of a rippling stream. "Och, the impudent thing!" ejaculated Mrs. Green, after watching her for some time. " I'd be ashamed to look at her, so I would " — no whit relaxing her eager stare nevertheless — " Dan's as daft as her brother, I think, to be taking notice of her at all. Bould, an' — an' ontidy, an' dirty — I'm sure she's a disgrace to the place" — hitching up her draggled shawl, and giving the flat bonnet which adorned her own ruffled tresses a "chuck" forward. These uncomplimentary remarks, how ever, did not disturb the lovers who remained talking and laughing together, heedless of her proximity. They stood there, indeed, until there remained of the sunset but a faint after-glow, of ESTHER 21 the burning furze but a few blackened smouldering twigs, till the loiterers had dispersed with many a cheery " good night," and even the Green family had betaken themselves homewards ; and then it was reluctantly enough that Dan pro posed to see his sweetheart safe to her own abode.

"Well, it's time to be thinkin' of it," returned Esther, "we've been standin' here long enough, and that smoke's in me throat yet." Upon which she coughed — a cough of the same quality as her laugh. " It isn't a cold ye've caught, is it ? " asked Dan anxiously ; " the wind's a bit sharp now, an' I clean forgot how late it was gettin'." " Come on now, then," said Esther unconcernedly, " sorra bit of cold I have — on'y chokin' wid the smoke I tell ye." They turned homewards in silence and walked slowly down the lane. The air, DAN 22 though growing chill as Dan had said, was full of sweet odours and pleasant sounds ; the tall hedges, all the fairer for being badly kept, waved their long graceful branches with a curious little stir and rustle every now and then ; a stream that crept through the rank grass on one side of the path chattered to the moss-grown stones which tried to bar its course ; a bell fastened round the neck of some wandering goat tinkled in the distance, and still further off in "the Lord's" park, the faint lowing of cattle could be heard.

Dan, in all the ecstasy of his young love, walked, as it were, in fairy-land, too happy to speak ; but to Esther the silence was a trifle oppressive. She glanced at Dan now and then with feelings of aggravation : here they were, acknowledged sweethearts now — they had talked the matter over pretty freely during the furzeburning — and he seemed to have nothing to say to her. After a little time she determined to give him a hint. Swinging ESTHER 23 her shapeless bonnet to and fro to mark the cadence, and suffering her dark fringed eyes to wander absently over the hedgerow she began to sing : " Say you love me, Molly darling, Let your answer be a kiss," &c. &c. The ditty was familiar enough to Dan, but the meaning of the words struck home to him with a force that almost took his breath away. There is nothing more touching, more admirable than the chivalry of the average Irish peasant for women.

Though Dan's courtship had been of some months' duration, and though his love for Esther was very ardent, he would no more have thought of taking the smallest liberty with her, than he would have set about his daily work without saying his prayers. But now — things were surely changed — she had acknowledged her love, and would shortly be his ; might he not venture to be more familiar ? The mere possibility set his heart beating violently, DAN 24 while his boyish, ingenuous face was covered with blushes. Esther in the meanwhile sang on with apparent unconcern, glancing slyly at her lover every now and then, and feeling more and more exasperated as they approached her home. Her happy thought had not had the effect of loosing his tongue, and it was too dark for her to distinguish his expression.

At last they reached her abode, a tumble-down cabin with a dim light burning in the window, and the door fast closed. " I'll say good-night to ye now, Dan," said Esther, breaking off suddenly in her song. "Troth it's the agree'ble man ye are this evenin' ! Not a word out o' ye the whole way home. I'm obliged to ye I'm sure for yer company." " Esther," returned Dan tremulously, " I couldn't spake because I was thinkin' of somethin'. Esther, you an' me's to be man an' wife, an', an' it is but right that we should be plisant and frien'ly together. ESTHER 25 So" (taking his courage in both hands), " I'm goin' to ax ye if ye'll gi' me a kiss, darlin'." "Are ye now?" cried Esther, with one of her crows of laughter. " The impi dence o' that ! Well, may-be I will — there ! " bestowing a sounding salute on his brown cheek.

"Now be off out o' that wid ye, for Pether doesn't like to see annywan sthrange." Dan, his face bright with rapture, and blushing up to the very roots of his hair, turned without a word, and was soon lost to view in the gatherings darkness. Esther stood for a moment looking after him dubiously : " Heth, he's a quare fella ! " she re marked to herself, " an' not a bit o' sperrit in him. He'll be moitherin' me if he's goin' to go on that-away." She was not, however, given to wast ing much time in reflection, and soon betook herself to the closed door of the cabin, which, after a vigorous shake DAN or two, opened to her strong brown hand. The scene within was neither cheerful nor inviting. Though Esther's dwelling was not quite so dirty and untidy as that of Mrs. Green, who between her children and her fowls, had long given up any attempt at cleanliness, it formed a strong contrast to the neatness and comfort of Dan's home.

The pig was not allowed to enter, but the chickens had often enough a meal off the uneven mud floor, the hearthstone, on which the turf fire still smouldered, had not been whitened for many a day, the one battered candlestick, in which a tallow candle with abnormal length of wick was burning, was heaped up with layer upon layer of grease, while all illusion as to the real office of the nondescript chest in the corner was destroyed by the protrusion of some very unsightly bedding. Crouching on a low stool close to the fire sat a strange, uncouth-looking figure, his ragged gar- ESTHER 27 ments huddled close round him, and his face drooping on his breast. Esther approached him quickly and clapped him on the shoulder ; she did not speak, for she knew that he could not hear her, this brother of hers having been deaf and dumb from his birth.

He sprang to his feet, uttering a harsh, inarticulate sound ; an uncanny figure indeed with its immense length of attenuated limb, black hair falling into the glittering eyes, a gleam of white teeth shininglike those of a wild beast through the habitually open mouth. To this mouth Peter now pointed with an expressive gesture, and again gave utterance to a discordant sound ; he was hungry. "Ah, God help him, it's starvin' he is," muttered Esther to herself, while she pro ceeded to minister to his wants. A loaf of bread was produced from a shelf near the fire-place (where it had been lying in close proximity to the boots which Esther assumed on Sunday), a thick slice cut there- DAN from, and presented, plentifully smeared with dripping, to the ravenous Peter. She watched him with strange solicitude as he tore and gnawed at it, his likeness to a wild beast being more apparent than ever ; smiling at him now and then with a tenderness far exceeding that which she had bestowed on Dan.

The best point in the girl's common-place, undisciplined nature, was her strong affection for the deaf-and dumb brother, who, motherless from his birth, had been all his life wholly dependent on her care. She had undertaken the charge when she was about six years old, and now, though he was eighteen, the bur then had increased instead of lessening, for their father had died in the preceding year, and Esther was in consequence the sole bread-winner. Peter, wholly incapable of assisting her in her labours, and by his infirmities severed from his fellow-creatures, had come to be regarded by almost everyone as a complete idiot. Yet it is difficult to say if he were indeed ESTHER 29 one ; now and then gleams of intelligence were perceptible in him, and had he re ceived the training available under happier circumstances, it is possible that his mental organisation might not have proved more defective than that of his neighbours.