n
business"; two circumstances which impressed Mrs. Brady very much, and
caused her to unbend towards "Miss Mahony," as she now respectfully
called her new acquaintance. The latter was loud in expressions of
admiration and sympathy as Mrs. Brady described the splendours of the
past; the servant-man and the servant-maid, who, according to her,
once formed portion of her establishment; the four beautiful milch
cows which her husband kept, besides sheep, and a horse an' car, and
"bastes" innumerable; the three little boys they buried, and then
Barney--Barney, the jewel, who was now in Amerika.

"The finest little fella ye'd see between this an' County Cork! Over
six fut, he is, an' wid a pair o' shoulders on him that ye'd think 'ud
hardly get in through that door beyant."

"Lonneys!" said Kate admiringly.

"Aye, indeed, an' ye ought to see the beautiful black curly head of
him, an' eyes like sloes, an' cheeks--why I declare"--half raising
herself and speaking with great animation, "he's the very moral o' St.
Patrick over there! God forgive me for sayin' such a thing, but raly
if I was to drop down dead this minute I couldn't but think it! Now I
assure ye, Miss Mahony, he's the very image of that blessed statye,
'pon me word!"

Miss Mahony looked appreciatively at the representation of the patron
of Ireland, which was remarkable no less for vigour of outline and
colouring than for conveying an impression of exceeding cheerfulness,
as both the saint himself and the serpent which was wriggling from
beneath his feet were smiling in the most affable manner conceivable.

"Mustn't he be the fine boy!" she ejaculated, after a pause. "I'd love
to see him--but I'll niver get a chanst o' that, I s'pose. Will he be
comin' here to see ye, ma'am?"

"He'll be comin' to take me out of it," returned the mother. "He
doesn't raly know I'm in it at all. I'll tell ye now the way it is.
When the poor father died--the light o' heaven to him--an' bad times
come, and we had to give up our own beautiful little place, Barney
brought me to town an' put me with Mrs. Byrne, a very nice respectable
woman that was married to a second cousin o' my poor husband's, an' I
was to stop with her till he came back from America with his fortune
made. Well," pursued Mrs. Brady, drawing in her breath with a sucking
sound, which denoted that she had come to an interesting part of her
narrative, "well, he kep' sendin' me money, ye know, a pound or maybe
thirt