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Rh him—that time that you were ready to faint—I went in, and I didn't find him in the house. He didn't come back all day, and then when the men were going home I stayed to look after the place. I thought every minute that he would be coming in at the door to me. I fell asleep some time during the night, and when I opened my eyes, there they were all working around me, and Shiana there too. And listen, mother—there is some great grief upon him."

"Why, what grief could there be upon him? Hasn't he full and plenty money, and isn't everybody thankful to him?"

"I know one person who isn't a bit too thankful to him," said Michael.

"Who is that," said she.

"That is Dermot's Sive," said he.

"Indeed? and why?" said she.

"Reason enough for her," said he; "because he wouldn't marry her."

"Och, plague to her, the jade! Who would marry her?"

Michael fell back in explosions of laughter. "Jade! Jade! Jade!" said he. "Oh, what a pity I didn't think of that name in the morning!"

"And what business would you have had of it in the morning?" said she.

"In the morning of the other day, I mean," said he, "when I was sent down there for some leather, and she called me a cripple."

"She called you a cripple!" said his mother. "If I had been listening to her, I would have told her who were the cripples that belonged to her, and I would have told her another thing that I won't tell