Page:The Country-House Party.djvu/56

48 fingers to the bone working for you?" she held a fat fist into his face. "Hav'n't I done for you this seven year, slaving and toiling, and not a thank-you? Who are you making allegations on my father's daughter? A thief, a poacher, a" but here she stopped. I could see she remembered her promise, and her face grew red with her desire to fling his hanging in his teeth.

'She looked at him where he sat smoking, his eyes daring her to break her word.

And I took that," says he, nodding at her when she hesitated, "without a gold piece, or even a couple of hens, to cover the expense."

'But this was too much. Without a word Moll slipped off her apron, and snatching a piece of turf from beside the fire, she tied the string of her apron across the middle of the sod; then using a chair as a mimic gallows, she threw the turf over the back.

See here, Mickie," she said, swinging it up and down; "see here."

I thought she'd get the better of me," said Mick with a roar of mirth as he heard me laughing in the corner. "Trust a woman. Without saying a word too. Come over, acushla," he said,