"Call me Mary. It's a year an' more now since the first time you brought Dan home to me." A sudden smile lighted her face. "Well I remember how frightened you looked when first you set eyes on me. Was you thinkin' to find Dan's wife a slip of a girl?" "No; he told me you was a fine, big lass." He looked from Mary to the picture of an older woman that hung above the mantel. "That'll be your mother, I'm thinkin'." Then, with abrupt change, "When did you leave the old country, Mary?" "A little more'n a year before I married Dan. But tell me, Mouse, about the chief wantin' him." "We'll you see, Dan's that handy-like--" "That's the blessed truth you're speakin'," she interupted, her face lovely with its flush of pride. "But tell me more, that's a darlin'." Larry thought rapidly before he spoke again. "Only the last trip I was hearin' the chief say: 'Dan,' says he, 'it's not long now you'll be swingin' the shovel. I'll be makin' you water-tender soon.'" Mary leaned nearer, and caught both of Larry's hands in hers. "Them's grand words you're sayin'; they fair makes my heart jump." She paused; the gladness faded quickly from her look. "Then the chief don't know Dan sometimes takes a drop?" "Ain't the chief Irish himself? Every man on the boilers takes his dram." Her wistful eyes spurred him on. "Sure's I'm sittin' here, Dan's the soberest of the lot." Mary shook her head sadly. "Good reason I have to fear the drink; 't was that spoiled my mother's life." Larry rose quickly. "Your mother never drank!" "No; the saints preserve us!" She looked up in surprise at Larry's startled face. "It was my father. I don't remember only what mother told me; he left her one night, ravin' drunk, an' never come back." Larry hastily took up his cap. "I must be goin' back to the ship now," he said abruptly. "An' thank you, Mary, for the tea." He hurried from the room. When Larry reached the ground floor he heard Mary's door open again. "Can I be troublin' you, Mouse, to take something to Dan?" She came down the stairs, carrying a dinner-pail. "I'd thought to be eatin' this supper along with him," Mary said, disappointment in her tone. She followed Larry to the outer landing. "It's the true word you was sayin', he'll be makin' Dan water-tender?" Larry forced himself to look into her anxious eyes. "Sure; it's just as I said, Mary." "Then I'll pray this night to the Mother of God for that chief; for soon"--Mary hesitated; a light came to her face that lifted the girl high above her squalid surroundings--"the extra pay'll be comin' handy soon," she ended, her voice as soft as a Killarney breeze. Larry, as he looked at the young wife standing between the scarred columns of the old doorway, was stirred to the farthest corner of his heart.