t he could hear about it was only
calculated to depress and distract him.

Dandy came to him one morning, about this period, and after rubbing his
head slightly with the tips of his fingers, said,

"Bedad, sir, I was very near havin' cotch the right Mrs. Norton
yestherday--I mane, I thought I was."

"How was that?" asked his master. "Why, sir, I heard there was a fine,
good-looking widow of that name, livin' in Meeklenburgh street,
where she keeps a dairy; and sure enough there I found her. Do you
undherstand, sir?"

"Why should I not, sirra? What mystery is there in it that I should
not?"

"Deuce a sich a blazer of a widow I seen this seven years. I went early
to her place, and the first thing I saw was a lump of a six-year-ould--a
son of hers--playin' the Pandean pipes upon a whack o' bread and butther
that he had aiten at the top into canes. Somehow, although I can't tell
exactly why, I tuck a fancy to become acquainted with her, and proposed,
if she had no objection, to take a cup o' tay with her yestherday
evenin', statin' at the time that I had something to say that might turn
out to her advantage."

"But what mystery is there in all this?" said his master.

"Mysthery, sir--why, where was there ever a widow since the creation of
Peter White, that hadn't more or less of mysthery about her?"

"Well, but what was the mystery here?" asked the other. "I do not
perceive any, so far."

"Take your time, sir," replied Dandy; "it's comin'. The young performer
on the Pandeans that I tould you of wasn't more than five or six at the
most, but a woman over the way, that I made inquiries of, tould me the
length o' time the husband was dead. Do you undherstand the mysthery
now, sir?"

"Go on," replied the other; "I am amused by you; but I don't see the
mystery, notwithstanding. What was the result?"

"I tell you the truth--she was a fine, comely, fiaghoola woman; and as I
heard she had the shiners, I began to think I might do worse."

"I thought the girl called Alley Mahon was your favorite?"

"So she is, sir--that is, she's one o' them: but, talkin' o' favorites,
I am seldom without half-a-dozen."

"Very liberal, indeed, Dandy; but I wish to hear the upshot."

"Why, sir, we had a cup o' tay together yestherday evenin', and, between
you and me, I began, as it might be, to get fond of her. She's very
pretty, sir; but I must say, that the man who marries her will get a
mouth, plaise goodness, that he must kiss by