was for jumpin' up, but Judy
niver moved.

'"Terence has promust, mother," sez she, an' the could sweat bruk out
all over me. Ould Mother Sheehy sat down of a heap an' began playin'
wid the cups. "Thin you're a well-matched pair," she sez very thick.
"For he's the biggest rogue that iver spoiled the queen's
shoe-leather, an'----"

'"I'm off, Judy," sez I. "Ye should not talk nonsinse to your mother.
Get her to bed, girl."

'"Nonsinse!" sez the ould woman, prickin' up her ears like a cat an'
grippin' the table-edge. "'Twill be the most nonsinsical nonsinse for
you, ye grinnin' badger, if nonsinse 'tis. Git clear, you. I'm goin'
to bed."

'I ran out into the dhark, my head in a stew an' my heart sick, but I
had sinse enough to see that I'd brought ut all on mysilf. "It's this
to pass the time av day to a panjandhrum av hell-cats," sez I. "What
I've said, an' what I've not said do not matther. Judy an' her dam
will hould me for a promust man, an' Dinah will give me the go, an' I
desarve ut. I will go an' get dhrunk," sez I, "an' forget about ut,
for 'tis plain I'm not a marrin' man."

'On my way to canteen I ran against Lascelles, colour-sergeant that
was av E comp'ny, a hard, hard man, wid a torment av a wife. "You've
the head av a drowned man on your shoulders," sez he; "an' you're
goin' where you'll get a worse wan. Come back," sez he. "Let me go,"
sez I. "I've thrown my luck over the wall wid my own hand!"--"Then
that's not the way to get ut back again," sez he. "Have out wid your
throuble, you fool-bhoy." An' I tould him how the matther was.

'He sucked in his lower lip. "You've been thrapped," sez he. "Ju
Sheehy wud be the betther for a man's name to hers as soon as can. An'
ye thought ye'd put the comether on her,--that's the natural vanity of
the baste. Terence, you're a big born fool, but you're not bad enough
to marry into that comp'ny. If you said anythin', an' for all your
protestations I'm sure ye did--or did not, which is worse,--eat ut
all--lie like the father of all lies, but come out av ut free av Judy.
Do I not know what ut is to marry a woman that was the very spit an'
image av Judy whin she was young? I'm gettin' old an' I've larnt
patience, but you, Terence, you'd raise hand on Judy an' kill her in a
year. Never mind if Dinah gives you the go, you've desarved ut; never
mind if the whole reg'mint laughs you all day. Get shut av Judy an'
her mother. They can't dhrag you to church, but if they do,