Page:The Black Moth.pdf/196



looked across at her sleeping husband with no little severity in her glance. He was stretched in a chair beneath a giant oak, and she was busied with some needlework a few paces from him. O’Hara’s eyes were shut and his mouth open. My lady frowned and coughed. She rasped her throat quite considerably, but it was not without effect; her spouse shut his mouth and opened one lazy eyelid. Immediately my lady assumed an air of gentle mournfulness, and the eye regarding her twinkled a little, threatening to close. Molly looked reproachful, and began to speak in an aggrieved tone:

“Indeed, and I do not think it at all kind in you to go to sleep when I want to talk, sir.”

O’Hara hastily opened the other eye.

“Why, my love, I was not asleep! I was—er—thinking!”

“Do you say so, sir? And do you usually think with your mouth open— snoring? ”

O’Hara started up.

“I’ll swear I did not snore!” he cried. “Molly, ’tis a wicked tease ye are!”

“Miles, ’tis a big baby you are!” she mimicked. “There is a caterpillar on your wig, and ’tis on crooked.”

“The caterpillar?” asked O’Hara, bewildered.

“No, stupid, the wig. I had best straighten it for you, I suppose.” She rose and stooped over him, settling the wig and removing the caterpillar by means of two leaves, judiciously wielded. Then she dropped