was the harrt-rendin' scene, with not a house nor a home fer him
to come till, an' him sendin' the money ivery month to pay fer it.
But where it's gone, it's not fer me to say. There's some in this
room" (here she regarded Rosenblatt with a steady eye) "might know
more about that money an' what happened till it, than they know
about Hivin. Ah, but as I was sayin', it wud melt the harrt av a
Kerry steer, that's first cousin to the goats on the hills fer
wildness, to see the way he tuk thim an' held thim, an' wailed over
thim, the tinder harrt av him! Fer only wan small hour or two could
he shtay wid thim, an' then aff to that haythen counthry agin that
gave him birth. An' the way he suffered fer that same, poor dear!
An' the beautiful wife he lost! Hivin be kind to her! Not her,"
following the judge's glance toward Paulina, "but an angel that
need niver feel shame to shtand befure the blissid Payther himsilf,
wid the blue eyes an' the golden hair in the picter he carries nixt
his harrt, the saints have pity on him! An' how he suffered fer the
good cause! Och hone! it breaks me harrt!" Here Mrs. Fitzpatrick
paused to wipe away her tears.
"But, Mrs. Fitzpatrick," interrupted Mr. Staunton, "this is all
very fine, but what has this to do--"
"Tut! man, isn't it that same I'm tellin' ye?" And on she went,
going back to the scene she had witnessed in her own room between
Kalmar and his children, and describing the various dramatis
personae and the torrential emotions that had swept their hearts
in that scene of final parting between father and children.
Again and again Staunton sought to stay her eloquence, but with a
majestic wave of her hand she swept him aside, and with a wealth of
metaphor and an unbroken flow of passionate, tear-bedewed rhetoric
that Staunton himself might well envy, she held the court under her
sway. Many of the women present were overcome with emotion. O'Hara
openly wiped away his tears, keeping an anxious eye the while upon
the witness and waiting the psychological moment for the arresting
of her tale.
The moment came when Mrs. Fitzpatrick's emotions rendered her
speechless. With a great show of sympathy, Mr. O'Hara approached
the witness, and offering her a glass of water, found opportunity
to whisper, "Not another word, on your soul."
"Surely," he said, appealing to the judge in a voice trembling
with indignant feeling, "my learned friend will not further
harass this witness."
"Let her
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