But, as you
remember, we have won over worse times, and now Providence has been
so good to you and Bryan, what have I to do but be thankful and hope
the best.'
Ulick watched her face, and gave her another note, saying mournfully,
'You see they all, but my mother, think, that if I am dragging our
family honour through the mire, I've got something by it. Poor
Bryan, he knows no better--he's younger than me by two years.'
The young ensign made a piteous confession of the first debt he had
been able to contract, for twenty pounds, with a promise that if his
brother would help him out of this one scrape, he would never run
into another.
'I am very sorry for you, Ulick,' said Albinia, 'and I hate to advise
you to be selfish, but it really is quite impossible for you to be
paymaster for all your brothers' debts.'
'If it were Connel, I know it would be of no use,' said Ulick. 'But
Bryan--you see he has got a start--they gave him a commission, and he
is the finest fellow of us all, and knows what his word is, and keeps
it! Maybe, if I get on, I may be able to save, and help him to his
next step, and then if Redmond could get to college, my mother would
be a happy woman, and all thanks to my uncle.'
'Then it is this twenty pounds that is pinching you now? Is that
it?'
'You see my uncle said he would give me enough to keep me as a
gentleman and his nephew, but not enough to keep all the family, as
he said.
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