l at
wanst, but she'll tell him gradual. Sometimes I do be very unaisy in
me mind, Miss Mahony, I assure ye, wondherin' what he'll say when he
hears. I'm afeared he'll be ready to kill me for bringin' such a
disgrace on him."

"Sure, what could ye do?" said Kate, a little tartly, for naturally
enough as "an inmate" of many years' standing, she did not quite like
her new friend's insistence on this point. "Troth, it's aisy talkin',
but it's not so aisy to starve. An' afther all, there's many a one
that's worse off nor us here, I can tell ye, especially since the
Sisthers come, God bless them, with their holy ways. How'd ye like to
be beyant at the ---- Union, where the nurses gobbles up all the
nourishment that's ordhered for the poor misfortunate cratures that's
in it, an leaves thim sthretched from mornin' till night without doin'
a hand's turn for them. Aye, an' 'ud go near to kill them if they
dar'd let on to the Docther. Sure, don't I know well how it was before
the Sisthers was here--we have different times now I can tell ye. Why,
that very statye o' St. Pathrick that ye were talkin' of a while ago,
wasn't it them brought it? An' there's St. Joseph over in the ward
fornenst this, an' St. Elizabeth an' the Holy Mother above. See that
now. Isn't it a comfort to be lookin' at them holy things, and to see
the blessed Sisthers come walkin' in in the mornin' wid a heavenly
smile for every one, an' their holy eyes lookin' into every hole an'
corner an' spyin' out what's wrong?"

"Aye, indeed," assented Mrs. Brady, a little faintly though, for
however grateful she might be, and comfortable in the main, there was
a bitterness in the thought of her "come down" that nothing could
alleviate.

She and her neighbour were excellent friends all the same, and she
soon shared Kate's enthusiasm for "the Sisthers," finding comfort
moreover in the discovery that Sister Louise understood and
sympathised with her feelings, and was willing to receive endless
confidences on the subject of the "little boy," and to discuss the
probability of his speedy advent with almost as much eagerness as
herself.

But all too soon it became evident that unless Barney made great haste
another than he would take Mrs. Brady "out of" the workhouse. Grim
death was approaching with rapid strides, and one day the priest found
her so weak that he told her he would come on the morrow to hear her
confession and to give her the last Sacraments.

Not one wor