Neal Malone and Other Tales of Ireland Author:William Carleton Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: DREAM OF A BROKEN HEART. L :.-. . i i i . Fergus O'reilly and Eveleen M'Mahon were born in the same village, and trained up together from their childh... more »ood. The green which stretched along the river, a little below their respective dwellings, had been many a time the scene of their early pastimes; and to this day it possesses a melancholy interest, arising from the memory of their lives. Fergus, from his very infancy, was remarkable for a sweet but melancholy temper; and if ever there was a disposition perfectly congenial with another's, it was that of Eveleen with his. Both were mild and sedate—both apparently timid, easily abashed, and incapable of almost any degree of resentment. The neighbours had frequently remarked their quiet and inoffensive dispositions, and often, in a jocular manner, said that their marriage had been made in heaven;—a beautiful and touching illustration of hearts so guileless and affectionate- as theirs. During their childhood and youth they were continually together ; companions at the same school, associates in their amusements, and partners even, in their devotions. They went to mass together, attended their catechism together, and both seemed to feel an identity of enjoyment and sympathy in their early mirth or sorrow, that fully justified all who knew them in linking their future destinies together. Whether they themselves had their young affections in any degree shaped into a particular tendency by these observations, regarding the probability of their future attachment, it is difficult to say. Certain, however, it is, that no amusement was relished by the one in which the other could not participate; and no secret anxiety felt which was not immediately shared in by both. At school, when Fergus chanced to come under the master's disp...« less