is lips
than an Ave Mary or a smile in resignation.'

'Ordher the priest off the ground, Sorr,' said O'Flaherty, lividly, to
little Puddock, who was too busy with Mr. Mahony to hear him; and Roach
had already transferred his pious offices to Nutter, who speedily
flushed up and became, to all appearances, in his own way just as angry
as O'Flaherty.

'Lieutenant O'Flaherty, a word in your ear,' once more droned the mellow
voice of Father Roach; 'you're a young man, my dear, and here's
Lieutenant Puddock by your side, a young man too; I'm as ould, my
honeys, as the two of you put together, an' I advise you, for your
good--don't shed human blood--don't even draw your swords--don't, my
darlins; don't be led or said by them army-gentlemen, that's always
standin' up for fightin' because the leedies admire fightin' men.
They'll call you cowards, polthroons, curs, sneaks, turn-tails--let
them!'

'There's no standin' this any longer, Puddock,' said O'Flaherty,
incensed indescribably by the odious names which his reverence was
hypothetically accumulating; 'if you want to see the fightin', Father
Roach----.'

'Apage, Sathanas!' murmured his reverence, pettishly, raising his plump,
blue chin, and dropping his eyelids with a shake of the head, and waving
the back of his fat, red hand gently towards the speaker.

'In that case, stay here, an' look your full, an' welcome, only don't
make a noise; behave like a Christian, an' hould your tongue; but if you
really hate fightin', as you say----'

Having reached this point in his address, but intending a good deal
more, O'Flaherty suddenly stopped short, drew himself into a stooping
posture, with a flush and a strange distortion, and his eyes fastened
upon Father Roach with an unearthly glare for nearly two minutes, and
seized Puddock upon the upper part of his arm with so awful a grip, in
his great bony hand, that the gallant little gentleman piped out in a
flurry of anguish--

'O--O--O'Flaherty, Thir--_let_ go my arm, Thir.'

O'Flaherty drew a long breath, uttered a short, deep groan, and wiping
the moisture from his red forehead, and resuming a perpendicular
position, was evidently trying to recover the lost thread of his
discourse.

'There'th dethidedly thomething the matter with you, Thir,' said
Puddock, anxiously, _sotto voce_, while he worked his injured arm's a
little at the shoulder.

'You may say that,' said O'Flaherty, very dismally, and, perhaps, a
little bitterly