er her coarse dress of some
country stuff she wore, for warmth, the cast-off coat of a soldier,
giving to her uncouth figure the semblance of an aged baboon at a
village-show. Her voice, broken with coughing, was a low, feeble treble,
that seemed to issue from passages where lingering life had left scarce
a trace of vitality; and yet she talked on, without ceasing, and moved
her skinny fingers among the tea-cups and knives upon the table, with a
fidgety restlessness, as though in search of something.

[Illustration: 252]

'There, acushla, don't smoke; don't now! Sure it is the ruin of your
complexion. I never see boys take to tobacco this way when I was young.'

'Whisht, mother, and don't be bothering me,' was the cranky reply, given
in a voice which, strange to say, was not quite unknown to me.

'Ay, ay,' said the old crone; 'always the same, never mindin' a word I
say; and maybe in a few years I won't be to the fore to look after you
and watch you.'

Here the painful thought of leaving a world, so full of its seductions
and sweets, seemed too much for her feelings, and she began to cry. Her
companion, however, appeared but little affected, but puffed away his
pipe at his ease, waiting with patience till the paroxysm was past.

'There, now,' said the old lady, brightening up, 'take away the
tay-things, and you may go and take a run on the common; but mind you
don't be pelting Jack Moore's goose; and take care of Bryan's sow, she
is as wicked as the devil now that she has boneens after her. D'ye hear
me, darlin', or is it sick you are? Och, wirra! wirra! What's the matter
with you, Corny _mabouchal?_'

'Corny!' exclaimed I, forgetful of my incognito.

'Ay, Corny, nayther more nor less than Corny himself,' said that
redoubted personage, as, rising to his legs, he deposited his pipe upon
the table, thrust his hands into his pockets, and seemed prepared to
give battle.

'Oh, Corney,' said I, 'I am delighted to find you here. Perhaps you can
assist me. I thought this was an hotel.'

'And why wouldn't you think it an hotel? hasn't it a bar and a
coffee-room? Isn't the regulations of the house printed, and stuck up
on all the walls? Ay, that's what the directors did--put the price on
everything, as if one was going to cheat the people. And signs on it,
look at the place now! Ugh! the Haythins! the Turks!'

'Yes, indeed, Corny, look at the place now,' glad to have an opportunity
to chime in with my friend's opinio