Page:The Country-House Party.djvu/53

Rh You 're the widow O'Dwyer, ma'm," says he, pushing her away, "and I'll thank you not to put your hand on me, for you have no call on me, at all, at all. For shame on you, ma'm, and your husband not cold, or waked yet, and him hanged on the gallows this day." With that he rose from the bed and strode to the door, leaving us all amazed and laughing, all but the poor wife.

I'm a free man," he says, stretching his arms as if to throw off a yoke, and he added with a grin, "I'll be hanged if I marry; it's a dog's life," says he, stepping outside, and the old Irish terrier rose and followed him. "A dog's life, and I'm done with it," and with that the two of them walked off.

'Poor Mrs. O'Dwyer, seeing her man disappear, ran to the door like one demented. "Mike, Mike, come back, mavourneen," says she. "It's breaking my heart you are with your joking."

'He was a soft man was Mike O'Dwyer, and I suppose he had a weakness for a woman; at her cry he turned and came to the door.

If I was resurrected and came home to you again, widow O'Dwyer," said he, "you would