ents, appeared, from the direction of her looks,
to be awaiting some one's arrival, when a lad hastened up the opposite
side of the alley, and breathlessly announced to her, that "the docther
wouldn't come 'thout he first got his fee."

"Holy Mary, mother of ----! Oh, wisha, what _am_ I to do!" exclaimed
the woman in a strong Irish accent, with that elision of apostrophe
into complaint peculiar to her country.

"If she goes on this way till mornin', two men wouldn't hould her, let
alone one _colleen_.[1] Run, Micky, to the 'seer, an' let him get her
to the hospiddle, or my heart 'll be broke from her."

"How dove I know where the 'seer lives at this hour o' the night?"
expostulated the boy.

"There's a wake in Tim Reilly's second floor--can't you go there, and
they'll tell you--can't you?"

The messenger disappeared, and I now, before putting the question for
which I had stopped, asked the woman soothingly the cause of her
perturbation.

"Is it what's the matther, sir? Matther enough thin--a poor crethur of
a woman lodgin' with me is took very bad with the fever. She wasn't to
say so bad entirely till this evenin', when she begin to rave, and
'sist upon gettin' up; an' goin' on with terrible talk, that it would
frighten the heart o' you to hear her."

"How long," I said, "has she been ill?"

"Wisha, sir, she was never well since the day she darkened my dure;
but I think 'tis the heat o' the weather, an' her never stirrin' out,
an' the weakness entirely, an' the impression on her heart, that is
killin' her now."

"And has she had no advice?"

"Sorrow the 'vice--you'd think she'd go into fits when I mentioned a
docther to her; and as to a priest or a ministher--my dear life, I
might as well mention a blunderbush."

Well accustomed to hear of, and witness, such suffering as the woman
described, I was about to proceed in quest of a physician myself, if
she had paused in the first part of the sentence just finished. The
concluding remarks arrested me.

"I am a clergyman," I said; "will you let me see this poor person?"

"An' a thousand welcomes, sir. I know you're not the Revern' Misthur
Falvey, that I goes to a' Christmas an' Easther--nor the ministher
convenient here. Maybe you're"----

"I'm quite unknown here; but by allowing me to see your patient, I
shall be able to judge if she is in a fit state to be removed to an
hospital; or, if instantly necessary, I shall myself procure medical
advice for her."