Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Silent Sam and other stories.djvu/151

Rh Doyle the name o' the man she was to marry. An' he married her, at that!"

Mrs. Cregan looked blank.

Mrs. Byrne leaned forward to her. "I never whispered it to a livin' soul but yerself—but it was her told Mrs. Gunn that her last was to be a boy. A good month ahead! An' when she saw it was true she had no peace o' mind till she heard the priest say the words over the poor child an' saw that the sprinkle o' holy water did n't bubble off him like yuh 'd sprinkled it on a hot stove."

Mrs. Cregan's vacant regard had slowly gathered a gleam of startled intelligence.

"An' if I was yerself, Mrs. Cregan—not knowin' where I was to go to, ner how I was to live—I 'd go an' have a talk with her before I went further, d' yuh see?"

"God forbid! 'T is a mortal sin."

"'T is not. When I told Father Dumphy what I 'd done, he called me an ol' fool an' gave me an extry litany fer penance. What 's a litany!"

"I 'd be scared o' me life!"

"Yuh wud not. Come along with me. I was goin'. I got troubles o' me own. Never mind that. There 's nothin' to be scared of. Nothin' at all. No one 'll see us. I been there meself many 's the time, an' no one knows it."

It was a good half hour later that Mrs. Byrne entered the "reception rooms" of Madame Wampa,