Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Silent Sam and other stories.djvu/321

Rh Tierney says. We 're a joke to yez, an' that 's the best yeh 'll iver make of us."

He sobered guiltily and looked down at his feet.

"An' Annie!" she broke out, "the simple cr'ature, ust to big gossoons o' boys that swally their tongues whin they go coortin' an' have niver a word to say—what 's she to make o' this grinnin' Jawn of hers with all his blether? I know him. He 's the mate of a lad that came acrost me the first year I was out, with his hat on the corner of his head an' the divil in 's eye. An' he talked with me an' walked with me an' called me candy names, till there was nuthin' but the sound of his voice in me ears, an' the look of his smile in me eye the whole livelong day till he came again of an evenin'." Her voice broke. "Faith, the time he kissed me first—at the gate that was—I ran into the house trimblin' an' blushin' wit' the fear an' the delight of it, me han's shakin' so I cud scarce get me clo's off me to git into me bed, an' layin' a-wake weepin' an' smilin' tegither all night long to think of it. That 's the sort o' fool I was. Th' angils jus' come to Hiven were no happier.… I was come to th' ither place before I was done with him.… Poor Annie! Poor gurl!"

He looked at her, silenced and ashamed. She wiped her cheeks with her apron and sighed under a load of anxiety for Annie. He tried to think of something to say in apology and reassurance; and glancing from her, at a loss, he saw a dark figure climbing the stone steps, silhouetted against a street light, "There!" he