Lakhasly

‏The Woman in the Black Coat by Joseph Sheridan Lefeno.

‏I was born into a rich and important family in Tyrone, Ireland.

‏I was the younger of two daughters and we were the only children.

‏My sister was six years older than me, so we didn't play much together when I was young and I was only 12 years old when she got married.

‏I remember the day of her wedding well.

‏Many people came, all of them laughing, singing and happy.

‏But I felt sad when my sister left with her new husband, Mr.

‏She was always very nice to me, nicer than my mother, and so I cried.

‏When she went away to her new home in Dublin, my mother and father didn't love me.

‏They wanted sons and were not very interested in me.

‏About a year after my sister got married, a letter arrived from Mr.

‏He said that my sister was ill and that she wanted to come home to Tyrone and stay with us to be with her family.

‏I was sad that she was ill, but also very happy about her visit.

‏They're leaving Dublin on Sunday, my father told me, and they're arriving here on Tuesday evening.

‏Hour after hour came and went, and I listened all the time for my sister and her husband.

‏Now the sky was dark and soon it was midnight, but I couldn't sleep.

‏I listened and waited.

‏Suddenly, at about 1:00 in the morning, I heard a noise far away.

‏I ran out of my bedroom and down to the living room.

‏They're here, They're here.

‏I called to my father, and we quickly opened the front door to see better.

‏We waited there for a few minutes and we heard the noise again.

‏Somebody crying far away in the night, but we saw nothing.

‏There were no lights and no people there

‏We went outside waiting to say hello and to help my sister with her bags.

‏But nobody was there.

‏Nobody came.

‏I looked at my father and he looked at me.

‏We didn't understand

‏I know I heard a noise, he said.

‏Yes, I answered.

‏I heard it too, Father.

‏But where are they?

‏We went back into the house without another word.

‏The next day a man arrived and told us that my sister was dead.

‏On Sunday she felt very ill.

‏On Monday she was worse.

‏And on Tuesday, at about 1:00 in the morning, she died at the same time that we were outside the house in the night waiting for her.

‏I never forgot that night.

‏For the next two years I was very sad.

‏You could say that I stopped living.

‏I didn't want to do anything or speak to anyone.

‏Carew soon married another young woman in Dublin and I felt angry that he forgot my sister so quickly.

‏I was now the only child of a rich and important family.

‏So before I was 14 years old, men started to visit our home.

‏They wanted to meet me and perhaps to marry me.

‏But I didn't like any of these men and I thought I was too young to be married.

‏When I was 16, my mother took me to Dublin.

‏Dublin is a big city, she said.

‏We're going to meet richer and more interesting men than the ones back home In Tyrone.

‏We can easily find you a good husband in Dublin.

‏In Dublin I began to be happier.

‏I met a lot of friendly people and I went dancing every evening.

‏A lot of young men came to speak to me and asked me to dance.

‏I liked talking to them.

‏I started to live and laugh again and I didn't think about my dead sister all the time.

‏But my mother was not so happy.

‏She wanted me to find a husband quickly.

‏One night before I went to bed, she came into my room and said, do you know Lord Glenn Fallon?

‏Oh yes, I answered.

‏He's that ugly old man from Kahagila.

‏He's not ugly and he's not old Fanny, my mother said quickly.

‏He's from a very rich and important family too, and he wants to marry you.

‏He loves you.

‏He loves me, wants to marry me.

‏But he's making a mistake, Mother, I said I don't love him.

‏can't marry somebody I don't love.