"'MAGGIE!' he hollers. And then they closed in on one another.

"Sim and the priest and Archie had followed the girl into the hall. Me
and Phinney was too flabbergasted to do anything, but big Father McGrath
was cool as an ice box. When Archibald, like the little imp he was, sets
up a whoop and dives for them two, the priest grabs him by the rope of
the blanket nighty and swings him into the libr'ry, and shuts the door
on him.

"'And now,' says he, takin' Sim and me by the arms and leadin' us to the
parlor, 'we'll just step in here and wait a bit.'

"We waited, maybe, ten minutes. Archibald, dear, shut up in the libr'ry,
was howlin' blue murder, but nobody paid any attention to him. Then
there was a knock on the door between us and the hall, and Father
McGrath opened it. There they was, the two of 'em--Mike and
Maggie--lookin' red and foolish--but happy, don't talk!

"'You see, sor,' says the O'Shaughnessy man to me, ''twas the
five-thousand-dollar prize that done it. I'd been workin' at me trade,
sor--larnin' to tind bar it was--and I'd just got a new job where the
pay was pretty good, and I'd sint over for Maggie, and was plannin' for
the little flat we was to have, and the like of that, when I drew that
prize. And the joy of it was like handin' me a jolt on the jaw. It put
me out for two weeks, sor, and when I come to I was in Baltimore, where
I'd gone to collect the money; and two thousand of the five was gone,
and I knew me job in New York was gone, and I was that shamed and sick
it took me three days more to make up me mind to come to me Cousin
Tim's, where I knew Maggie'd be waitin' for me. And when I did come back
she was gone, too.'

"'And then,' says Father McGrath, sharp, 'I suppose you went on another
spree, and spent the rest of the money.'

"'I did not, sor--axin' your pardon for contradictin' your riverence.
I signed the pledge, and I'll keep it, with Maggie to help me. I put
me three thousand into a partnership with me friend Dempsey, who was
runnin' the Golconda House--'tis over on the East Side, with a fine bar
trade--and I'm doin' well, barrin' that I've been crazy for this poor
girl, and advertisin' and--'

"'And look at the clothes of him!' sings out Margaret, reverentlike.
'And is that YOUR tall hat, Mike? To think of you with a tall hat! Sure
it's a proud girl I am this day. Saints forgive me, I've forgot Archie!'

"And afore we could stop her she'd run into the hall and unfastened
the l