“And if I wur ten times on my oath, I donʼt remimber no gintleman. A bit of a red–haired gossoon there was, as wor on the way to be transported”. “Do you remember his name”? “Remimber it? Let me see, thin. It wor hardly worth the throuble of forgittin. Button, or Mutton; no, faix I bʼlieve it wor Rubus Rotten”. “Well, never mind his name——” “My faith, and I niver did, thin, nor the little spalpin ayther. But to my heart I was sorry for the dear, good, beautiful lady—glory be to her sowl—along o’ that ignorant, carroty, sprawlinʼ, big–knuckled omadhawn. Small chance for her to git over it”. “Silence, woman, how dare you”? said Sir Cradock, very angrily. “And I thought it was arl the truth as yer honour said I was to tell”. Here Biddy looked hurt and amazed. “Have the little clerk got it all in black and white”? With a sigh for his incapacity, she peered over the desk at his paper. “Now, Mrs. OʼGaghan, no trifling”! Her master spoke sternly and sharply. But Rufus could not speak at all. He was in such a choking passion. “If so be I have said any harm, sir, for the best of us is errowneous, I axes a humble pardon. Iver since I lose my good husband—and a better husband there cudnʼt be, barrin only the bellises, and I wudnʼt deny upon my oath but what I desarved the spout now and thin——” “Mrs. OʼGaghan”, said Dr. Hutton, trying very hard to look amiable, “do your best for once, I entreat you, to prove yourself, if there is such a thing, a _respectable Irishwoman_”. From that moment the tables were turned. Her temper boiled up like a cauldron. It is quite of a piece with a thing that is all pieces—the genuine Irish nature—that, proud as they are of their country, they cannot bear to be told of their citizenship. “Irish, thin, is it? Irish indade! Well, and I knows Iʼm Irish. And if I ainʼt, what do I care who knows I am”? She flung up her head superbly, and great tears ran from her eyes. Rufus Hutton perceived his advantage, and, though not at all a mean fellow, he was smarting far too sharply from the many attacks on his vanity, to forego his sweet revenge. “You remember, then, when the doctor gave you the first–born child, that he made some odd remark, and told you to keep it separate”? “And how can a poor Irishwoman remimber anything at all”? “Come, you know very well that you remember that. Now, can you deny it”? “Is it likely youʼll catch me deny anything as is a lie, then, Irish or not, as you plases”? Her bosom still was heaving with the ground–swell of her injury. “Well, now, for the honour of old Ireland, tell us the truth for once. What were the words he said”? “Save me if evir a bit of me can tell. Mayhap I might call to mind, if I heerʼd them words agin”. “Were they not these—ʼLeft to right over the shoulder, and a strapping boy he is?’” “Bedad thin, and they might have been”. “I want to know what they were”. “How can I tell what they were? I only know what they was”. “Well, and what was that”?