you come?"

"Shure, an' it's yer honor knows me well enough; and her ladyship
too; may the heavens be her bed. And don't I come from Clady; that
is two long miles the fur side of it? And my name is Bridget Sheehy.
Shure, an' yer ladyship remembers me at Clady the first day ye war
over there about the biler."

Clara looked at her, and thought that she did remember her, but she
said nothing. "And who is your husband?" said Herbert.

"Murty Brien, plaze yer honor;" and the woman ducked a curtsey with
the heavy load of two children on her back. It must be understood
that among the poorer classes in the south and west of Ireland it is
almost rare for a married woman to call herself or to be called by
her husband's name.

"And is he not at work?"

"Shure, an' he is, yer honor--down beyant Kinsale by the say. But
what's four shilling a week for a man's diet, let alone a woman and
five bairns?"

"And so he has deserted you?"

"No, yer honor; he's not dasarted me thin. He's a good man and
a kind, av' he had the mains. But we've a cabin up here, on her
ladyship's ground that is; and he has sent me up among my own people,
hoping that times would come round; but faix, yer honor, I'm thinking
that they'll never come round, no more."

"And what do you want now, Bridget?"

"What is it I'm wanting? just a thrifle of money then to get a sup of
milk for thim five childher as is starving and dying for the want of
it." And she pointed to the wretched, naked brood around her with a
gesture which in spite of her ugliness had in it something of tragic
grandeur.

"But you know that we will not give money. They will take you in at
the poorhouse at Kanturk."

"Is it the poorhouse, yer honor?"

"Or, if you get a ticket from your priest they will give you meal
twice a week at Clady. You know that. Why do you not go to Father
Connellan?"

"Is it the mail? An' shure an' haven't I had it, the last month past;
nothin' else; not a taste of a piaty or a dhrop of milk for nigh a
month, and now look at the childher. Look at them, my lady. They are
dyin' by the very road-side." And she undid the bundle at her back,
and laying the two babes down on the road showed that the elder of
them was in truth in a fearful state. It was a child nearly two years
of age, but its little legs seemed to have withered away; its cheeks
were wan, and yellow and sunken, and the two teeth which it had
already cut were seen with terrible plainness through its