the Doctor had passed the night with
the cards in his hands, and a tumbler of punch beside him.

He was a tall, thick-set, heavy man, with short black curly hair; was a
little bald at the top of his head; and looked always as though he had
shaved himself the day before yesterday, and had not washed since. His
face was good-natured, but heavy and unintellectual. He was ignorant of
everything but his profession, and the odds on the card-table or the
race-course. But to give him his due, on these subjects he was not
ignorant; and this was now so generally known that, in dangerous cases,
Doctor Colligan had been sent for, many, many miles.

This was the man who attended poor Anty in her illness, and he did
as much for her as could be done; but it was a bad case, and Doctor
Colligan thought it would be fatal. She had intermittent fever, and
was occasionally delirious; but it was her great debility between the
attacks which he considered so dangerous.

On the morning after the hunt, he told Martin that he greatly feared
she would go off, from exhaustion, in a few days, and that it would be
wise to let Barry know the state in which his sister was. There was a
consultation on the subject between the two and Martin's mother, in
which it was agreed that the Doctor should go up to Dunmore House, and
tell Barry exactly the state of affairs.

"And good news it'll be for him," said Mrs Kelly; "the best he heard
since the ould man died. Av he had his will of her, she'd niver rise
from the bed where she's stretched. But, glory be to God, there's a
providence over all, and maybe she'll live yet to give him the go-by."

"How you talk, mother," said Martin; "and what's the use? Whatever he
wishes won't harum her; and maybe, now she's dying, his heart'll be
softened to her. Any way, don't let him have to say she died here,
without his hearing a word how bad she was."

"Maybe he'd be afther saying we murdhered her for her money," said the
widow, with a shudder.

"He can hardly complain of that, when he'll be getting all the money
himself. But, however, it's much betther, all ways, that Doctor
Colligan should see him."

"You know, Mrs Kelly," said the Doctor, "as a matter of course he'll be
asking to see his sister."

"You wouldn't have him come in here to her, would you?--Faix, Doctor
Colligan, it'll be her death out right at once av he does."

"It'd not be nathural, to refuse to let him see her," said the Doctor;
"and I don't t