Page:Life's Handicap - Kipling (1891).djvu/71

 Is ut afraid you are av a girl alone?" sez Judy.

No," sez I. "Why should I be?"

That rests wid the girl," sez Judy, dhrawin' her chair next to mine.

Thin there let ut rest," sez I; an' thinkin' I'd been a trifle onpolite, I sez, "The tay's not quite sweet enough for my taste. Put your little finger in the cup, Judy. 'Twill make ut necthar."

What's necthar?" sez she.

Somethin' very sweet," sez I; an' for the sinful life av me I cud not help lookin' at her out av the corner av my eye, as I was used to look at a woman.

Go on wid ye, corp'ril," sez she. "You're a flirrt."

On me sowl I'm not," sez I.

Then you're a cruel handsome man, an' that's worse," sez she, heaving big sighs an' lookin' crossways.

You know your own mind," sez I.

'Twud be better for me if I did not," she sez.

There's a dale to be said on both sides av that," sez I, unthinkin'.

Say your own part av ut, then, Terence, darlin'," sez she; "for begad I'm thinkin' I've said too much or too little for an honest girl," an' wid that she put her arms round my neck an' kissed me.

There's no more to be said afther that," sez I, kissin' her back again—Oh the mane scutt that I was, my head ringin' wid Dinah Shadd! How does ut come about, sorr, that when a man has put the comether on wan woman, he's sure bound to put it on another? 'Tis the same thing at musketry. Wan day ivry shot goes wide or into the bank, an' the next, lay high lay low, sight or snap, ye can't get off the bull's-eye for ten shots runnin'.'

'That only happens to a man who has had a good