at?"

"Faith then, she is, very bad intirely; at laste, Docther Blake says
so."

"It's very well, any way, that she's at Drumsna, instead of here at
Ballycloran. Mrs. McKeon must be a kind woman to take her at such a
time as this. And what's the owld man doing here by himself?"

"He's very quare in his ways, they do be saying; but I didn't see him
meself yet; I'm going down to mind him, meself, this blessed moment."

"Why, isn't the two girls in it still?"

"Yes, they is, Mr. Thady; but they got frighted with the quare ways
the owld man brought back with him from Carrick. He's wake in the
head, they say, Mr. Thady, since he war up afore the gintlemen at
the inquest; an' as the two girls wor frighted with 'im, an' as I
am, maybe, a bit sthronger, an' a thrifle owlder nor they, Father
John said I'd better step down an' mind him a bit; an' when all was
settled, that he would see my expinses war paid."

"Well, Mary, good night! Be kind and gentle with the owld man,
for he's enough on him jist now to unsettle his mind, av it were
sthronger than it iver was; and don't tell him you see me here, for
it would only be making him more onasy."

"Good night, thin, an' God bless you, Mr. Thady," said Mary. "You've
a peck of throubles on yer head, this night," she added to herself,
as she walked up the avenue, "an' it's little you did to desarve 'em,
onless working hard night an' day war a sin. Well, God forgive us!
shure you're betther off still, than the gay man you stretched the
other night;" and she went on to commence her new business--that of
watching and consoling Larry Macdermot in his idiotcy.

Thady pursued his road to the Cottage, without meeting anyone else,
and with some hesitation knocked at the priest's door. His heart
palpitated violently within him as he waited some little time for
an answer. It was about eleven, and he knew that at that hour
Father John would still be up, if he were at home, though Judy
would probably have retired to her slumbers. He was right in his
calculation; for in a short time he heard the heavy step of Father
John in the hall, and then the rusty door-key grated in the lock.
Thady's knees shook beneath him as he listened to the rising latch.
How should he meet Father John's eyes after what he had done? How
should he find words to tell him that he had broken the solemn vow
that he had taken on the holy scriptures, and had, in his first
difficulty, flown to the disreputable security to