letter; for always recollect, my son, that if you would worm a secret
out of a woman, you'll do more by contradiction than you ever will by
coaxing--so I went on: 'Anyhow, I think it's a burning shame, Mrs
O'Rourke, for a gentleman to bring over with him here from England a
parcel of lazy English servants, when there's so many nice boys and
girls here to attind upon them.'

"'Now there you're all wrong again, Father M'Grath,' says she. 'Devil a
soul has he brought from the other country, but has hired them all here.
Arn't there Ella Flanagan for one maid, and Terence Driscol for a
footman? and it's well that he looks in his new uniform, when he comes
down for the newspapers; and arn't Moggy Cala there to cook the dinner,
and pretty Mary Sullivan for a nurse for the babby as soon as it comes
into the world?'

"'Is it Mary Sullivan you mane?' says I; 'she that was married about
three months back, and is so quick in child-getting, that she's all but
ready to fall to pieces in this same time?'

"'It's exactly she,' says Mrs O'Rourke; 'and do you know the reason?'

"'Devil a bit,' says I; 'how should I?'

"'Then it's just that she may send her own child away, and give her milk
to the English babby that's coming; because the lady is too much of a
lady to have a child hanging to her breast.'

"'But suppose Mary Sullivan's child ar'n't born till afterwards, how
then?" says I. 'Speak, Mrs O'Rourke, for you're a sensible woman.'

"'How then?' says she. 'Och! that's all arranged; for Mary says that
she'll be in bed a week before the lady, so that's all right, you'll
perceive, Father M'Grath.'

"'But don't you perceive, sensible woman as you are, that a young woman,
who is so much out of her reckoning as to have a child three months
after her marriage, may make a little mistake in her lying-in
arithmetic, Mrs O'Rourke.'

"'Never fear, Father M'Grath, Mary Sullivan will keep her word; and
sooner than disappoint the lady, and lose her place, she'll just tumble
down-stairs, and won't that put her to bed fast enough?'

"'Well, that's what I call a faithful good servant that earns her
wages,' says I; 'so now I'll just take another glass, Mrs O'Rourke, and
thank you too. Sure you're the woman that knows everything, and a mighty
pretty woman into the bargain.'

"'Let me alone now, Father M'Grath, and don't be pinching me that way,
anyhow.'

"'It was only a big flea that I perceived hopping on your gown, my
darling, devil a