could believe so, Barry--I'd die happy and in comfort, for I love
you better than anything on earth;" and again she pressed his hot red
hand--"but oh, brother! I feel for you:--you never kneel before the
altar of God--you've no priest to move the weight of sin from your
soul--and how heavy that must be! Do you remember, Barry; it's but
a week or two ago and you threatened to kill me for the sake of our
father's money? you wanted to put me in a mad-house; you tried to make
me mad with fear and cruelty; me, your sister; and I never harmed or
crossed you. God is now doing what you threatened; a kind, good God
is now taking me to himself, and you will get what you so longed for
without more sin on your conscience; but it'll never bless you, av
you've still the same wishes in your heart, the same love of gold--the
same hatred of a fellow-creature."

"Oh, Anty!" sobbed out Barry, who was now absolutely in tears, "I was
drunk that night; I was indeed, or I'd never have said or done what I
did."

"And how often are you so, Barry?--isn't it so with you every night?
That's another thing; for my sake, for your own sake--for God's sake,
give up the dhrink. It's killing you from day to day, and hour to hour.
I see it in your eyes, and smell it in your breath, and hear it in your
voice; it's that that makes your heart so black:--it's that that gives
you over, body and soul, to the devil. I would not have said a word
about that night to hurt you now; and, dear Barry, I wouldn't have said
such words as these to you at all, but that I shall never speak to
you again. And oh! I pray that you'll remember them. You're idle now,
always:--don't continue so; earn your money, and it will be a blessing
to you and to others. But in idleness, and drunkenness, and wickedness,
it will only lead you quicker to the devil."

Barry reiterated his promises; he would take the pledge; he would work
at the farm; he would marry and have a family; he would not care the
least for money; he would pay his debts; he would go to church, or
chapel, if Anty liked it better; at any rate, he'd say his prayers; he
would remember every word she had said to the last day of his life;
he promised everything or anything, as though his future existence
depended on his appeasing his dying sister. But during the whole time,
his chief wish, his longing desire, was to finish the interview, and
get out of that horrid room. He felt that he was mastered and cowed by
the creature