Part 18 (1/2)

”Time the chile was bruk aff that habit,” observed the mother, as she seated herself beside the table with so as she can, Mrs O'Halloran,” I remarked

”Surely you would n't wish any alteration in her”

”Nat without it was an altheration fur the betther,” replied the worthy woman

”An' it's little hopes there is iv hur, consitherin' the way she's rairt

Did iver anybody hear o' rairin' childher' without batin' them when they want it?”

”You bate hur, an' A'll bate you!” interposed Rory, turning to bay on the most salient of the three or four pleas which had power to rouse the Old Adam in his unassertive nature

”Well, A 'm sure A was bate--ay, an' soun'ly bate--when A was lek hur; an' iv A did n't desarve it then, A desarved it other tiit it”

An obvious rejoinder rose to my mind, but evidently not to Rory's, for the look on his face told only of a dogged resolution to continue sinning against the light He knew that his own contumacy in this respect would land his soul in perdition, and he deliberately let it go at that Brave old Rory!

Never does erratic e as when his own intuitive orously overbears a conscientiousness warped by some fallacy which he still accepts as truth

Yet the mother loved the child in her own hard, puritanical way And, in any case, you are not co, instead of finding soer to support you in luxury for the pleasure of your society; unless, instead ofsome squatter, or bank clerk, or Member of Parliament, you have inadvertently coupled yourself to a Catholic boundaryshort of Rory O'Halloran

The embittered woman retired early, and without phrases As she did so, I casually noticed that the bed-room was bisected by a partition, with a curtained doorway

”Ever try your hand at literature, Rory?” I presently asked, re Williamson's remark

”Well, A ken har'ly say No, an' A ken har'ly say Yis,” replied Rory, with ill-feigned huot a bit iv a thraytise scribbled down, furbye a wheen o' other wans on han' A thoughtchild--”well, A thought mebbe it would do hur no harruht say-- Nat but what she'll hev money in the bank, plaze God But A'll lay hur down in hur wee cot now, an' A'll bring the thrifle ur mentionin'”

He tenderly carried the child into the first co, placed before me about twenty quarto sheets of manuscript, written on both sides, in a careful, schoolboy hand The first page was headed, A Plea for Woreat!” said I, after reading the first long paragraph

”I should like to skiument, and then read it leisurely, to enjoy the style And that reet it out of , and you can read it to kill time”

But it became evident that he could n't fix his mind on the newspaper whilst his own literary product was under scrutiny The latter unfolded itself as a unique example of pure deduction, aided by utter lack of discrimination in the value of evidence It was all synthesis, and no analysis

A certain hypothesis had to be established, and it was established

The style was directly antithetical to that curt, blunt, and simple pronounce Socialis Man” But the Essay

I ath, but because----

”Rory, you lad it plazes ye; right glad, so A a it on the public--so to speak?”

”Yis”

”Well, I'll faithfully promise to keep the whole work sacred to your credit

And if ever I go into print--which is most unlikely--I'll refer to this essay in such a way as to whet public curiosity to a feather edge

Again, if anything should happen to this copy, you'll have mine to fall back upon”

”A'll thrust ye, Tao”

The object of the essay was to prove that, at a certain epoch in the world's history, the character of woone an instantaneous transforreatest thinkers and most infallible authorities our race has produced are Solomon and Shakespear