Solitary Island, Chapters IV-V [pp. 358-379]

362 SOLITARY JsLAKD. [Dec.,
"What difference will it make to you if she be damned?" said
madame, sneeringly. "Wouldn't you like company?"
"Sportin' with that lawyer below, the-the witch! He makin'
faces at her an' she softenin' him with music. The omadhaun!
that has no more heart than a stone. It's a gizzard he has! An'
he won't be a Catholic within ten years, he's such a poor wan
now. I tell ye I won't stand it!"
"Evidently you have a grievance of some kind," said madame: "pray what is it? And, if you can, spea~ plainly."
"I've seen through ye, ma'am"; and Peter leered at the elegant lady. "I've seen through yer daughter too; an' I know yer
just dyin' to get the lawyer into the family. But I swear if she
tries it I'll blow on yer scheme; I will, be all creation! An' I'll
go to him meself an' tell him tl~e whole thing."
"Wait a minute," said madame sternly.
"Wait a minute!" snapped Peter; but he recognized the tone
which madame used, and kept growling in a prudent minor key.
"Wait! I'll be hanged if I'll wait one second."
"There's a little debt of yours just sent me this morning,"
said madame, "and I was trying to decide whether it would be
better to pay it or stop it out of your monthly allowance."
"Oh!-ah!" said Peter, slightly confused.
"And, then, Mrs. Brown was here this morning to tell me her
front room is vacant, and I thought it wiser that you should remove
yourself there, for you are getting too coarse for this elegance."
"Elegance be hanged!" said Peter warmly! "What do I
care for you and yer elegance? I'll go to Mrs. Brown's, if ye
wish me to, or to the di vii."
"Don't hurry," said madame graciously; "you'll meet your
old friend soon enough."
But I'll ruin ye, I'll ruin ye!" he stormed. " I'll tell the
whole story to the lawyers, poets, and greatnesses, I will, and
end yer fine plottin'."
"There are some papers here," said madame, "which I will
read for you. You need quieting, you dear, foolish old man.
And if it is necessary to remove you from Mrs. Brown's front
room, your next journey, I fear, will be to prison."
"Oh -ah!" said Peter, collapsing suddenly. "But sure yer.
not goin' to send me to Mrs. Brown's; ye wouldn't turn out an
old man from such comfortable quarters?"
"You are so boisterous when you drink," said madame; "you
make so many threats, you interfere so unwarrantably in the
affairs of strangers, that really-"