As he uttered the words he passed rapidly out of a broken portion
of the wall, and, before she was aware of his approach, stood
beside her. I thought she would have been startled by his unexpected
appearance, but I was mistaken; she surveyed him not only without alarm,
but benignly; and after having examined him for some moments, she said,
'there are three of them, but they will not come--don't you know how I
loved somebody?'

"'Which o' them?' said Raymond.

"'It's a long sleep,' she said, without noticing the question, 'a long
sleep--well, they want it, poor things, for there was but little for
them but care, and cowld, and hardship--Sure we had sickness--Torley
left us first; but,--let me see,--where did Poor Brian go? Well, no
matter, we had sickness, as I said, and sometimes we had little or
nothing to eat, but sure still wasn't my hand tendher about them. I felt
my heart in my fingers when I touched them, and, if I gave them a drink
didn't my heart burn, and oh! it was then I knew how I loved them!
Whisht, then, poor things--och sure I'll do my best--I'll struggle for
you as well as I can--you have none but me to do it--it's not the black
wather I'd give my darlin' child if I had betther; but gruel is what I
can't get, for the sorra one grain of mail is undher the roof wid me;
but I'll warm the cowld potato for my pet, and you can play wid it till
you fall asleep, accushla. Yes, I will kiss you; for afther all, isn't
that the richest little treat that your poor mother has to comfort you
with in your poor cowld sick bed--one and all o' ye.'

"Here she rocked herself to and fro, precisely as if she had been
sitting by the sick bed, then stooping down a third time, she kissed the
earth that contained them once more--

"'Ah,' she exclaimed, 'how cowld their lips are! how cowld my
white-haired boy's lips are! and their sleep is long--Oh! but their
sleep is long!'

"Raymond, during these incoherent expressions, stood mutely beside her,
his lips, however, often moving, as if he were communing with himself,
or endeavoring to shape some words of rude comfort in her sorrows; but
ever and anon, as he seemed to go about it, his face moved with feelings
which he could not utter, like the surface of a brook stirred by the
breeze that passes over it. At length he laid his hand gently on her
shoulder, and exclaimed in a tone of wild and thrilling compassion--

"'Mary!'

"She then started for a moment, and looking around h