Willy Reilly: The Works of William Carleton, Volume OneCarleton, William
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Willy Reilly: The Works of William Carleton, Volume One
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“Come down to the kitchen then, sir, and I shall put you into the
servants' hall, which branches off it. It is entered, besides, by a
different door from that of the kitchen, and while you stay there--and
you can pass into it without going through the kitchen--I will try to
let her know where you are. She has at present a maid who was sent by
Sir Robert Whitecraft, and she is nothing else than a spy; but it'll go
hard, or I'll baffle her.”
He accordingly placed Reilly in the servants' hall, and on his way to
the drawing-room met Miss Folliard going to her own apartment, which
commanded a view of the front of the house. He instantly communicated
to her the fact of Reilly's presence in the servants' hall; “but,”
added Lanigan, “you won't know him--his own mother, if she was livin',
wouldn't know a bone in his body.”
“Oh!” she replied, whilst her eyes flashed fearfully, in fact, in a
manner that startled the cook--“oh! if he is there I shall soon know
him. He has a voice, I think--he has a voice! Has he not, Lanigan?”
“Yes, ma'am,” replied Lanigan, “he has a voice, and a heart too.”
“Oh! yes, yes,” she said, “I must go to him; they want to marry me to
that monster--to that bigot and persecutor, on this very day month; but,
Lanigan, it shall never be--death a thousand times sooner than such
a union. If they attempt to bind us, death shall cut the link
asunder--that I promise you, Lanigan. But I must go to him--I must go to
him.”
She ran down the stairs as she spoke, and Lanigan, having looked after
her, seemed deeply concerned.
“My God!” he exclaimed, “what will become of that sweet girl if she is
forced to marry that wealthy scoundrel? I declare to my God I hardly
think she is this moment in her proper senses. There's a fire in her
eyes; and something in her manner, that I never observed before. At
all events, I have locked the door that opens from the kitchen into the
servants' hall, so that they cannot be interrupted from that quarter.”
When the _Cooleen Bawn_ entered, she shrank back instinctively.
The disguise was so complete that she could not impose even on her
imagination or her senses. The complexion was different, in fact, quite
sallow; the beard long, and the costume such as we have described it.
There was, in fact, something extremely ludicrous in the meeting. Here
was an elegant and beautiful young woman of fashion, almost ready, as it
were, to throw herself in the arms of a common pauper, with a beard upon
him better than half an inch long. As it was, she stopped suddenly and
retreated a step or two, saying, as she did so:
“This must be some mistake. Who are you?”
“Helen!”
“Reilly! oh, that voice has set all right. But, my God, who could know
you--in this disguise?”
They approached, and Reilly, seizing her hand, said, “I will shake hands
with you; but until this disguise is off I would consider it sacrilege
to approach nearer to your person.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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