“And what is it all for, my lady?” I asked, when the breath returned to my body, and the courage to my heart. “Now that you are done with me, I’d like to go back to myself, if you plaze, for I never did join the mummers in my own country, and I don’t like it, my lady.” “But you must like it!” she exclaimed, “you _must_ like it--you are to be an Irish beggar-woman.” “None of my breed was ever that ma’am.” I said, feeling as if a bolt of ice had run through my heart; but she never heeded me. “And those are to be your children!” “My _children_!” I repeated, “my children--oh, holy Father!--to even the like of that to _me_, and I came all over like a flash of fire. So with that she called me a fool, and repeated, it was all for the good of the country--to show the boundless nature of the ”Cranley Hurst Charity“--that it took in _even the Irish_. Oh, how my blood boiled; and I up and told her, that it was true the English now and again did a great deal for Ireland, and very good it was of them, for no doubt the Irish were a mighty troublesome people; and indeed, it was hard to think how any people could sit down quiet and cheerful that had only potatoes to eat, and rags to cover them. But if the English were good to them, they were always telling them of it, and they never gave their gratitude _time to grow_; and as for me, I had seen too much real misery in rags ever to make a play of it;” and then the tears would come and choke me almost, and I hid my face in the child’s lap; I was so ashamed of them tears. Now, would you believe, that instead of being angry, she got out her pencil, and wrote it every word down--and clapt her hands in delight, and said it was as fine as Mrs. Keeley’s humor and pathos--and begged of me to say it again, that I might be sure to say it right--_in public_--and when she found I would not make a mummer of myself, in what she called a _tablou_, she said she would pay me to do it. And I made answer, that what I could not do for _love_, I would never do for money, which surprised her. The English think they can get every thing done through their money. And, aunt, she got into such a state, poor lady, she cried, she wrung her hands, she declared she was ruined, she upbraided me, she said I had promised to do it--and all this time the blue flags were flying, and the band playing on the lawn, and a great flat, open carriage of a thing, waiting to take me and the children _for a show_--for a show through the place! think of that! and while she was debating with me, some one came in, and told her she was guilty of bribery--and while the band played, “See the Conquering Hero comes,” she went off into little hysterics--upbraiding me all the time. And in the thick of it my mistress entered, leaning on Mr. Francis’ arm. “Oh, cousin, cousin!” she screamed, “that horrid Irish woman will lose me my little election!” The Hon. Mr. Francis seemed not much to mind her, but I heard him whisper my lady-- “_But I have gained mine!_”