Still thinking of the dinner I had not had at Heatherdale house I asked her if she knew Mr. W——.
"Sure I do, an' the finest man in all Ireland. Me boy Ja-mes worked there at gardening and whin he was leaving for America Mr. W—— gave a dinner for him to all the villagers and gave him a watch with his name on it and 'in remimbrance of Heatherdale' in it. Oh, yes, a fine man an' humble. Sure, if Jimmy'd be sick for a day it's Mr. W—— would be down here in me cottage askin' afther him an' could he be doing annything for him.
"Humbleness. That what the blissed Lord taught us. He could have been borrn in a palace, but he was borrn in a stable in Bethleham. Are you a Catholic?"
"No—"
"Ah, never mind. There's arl kinds of good people——"
"Is Mr. W—— a Protestant?"
"Sure, I dunno," was Mrs. Kelly's guarded reply. "He goes to the Protestant church, but I don't know what he is, on'y he's a good man—none better in all Ireland.
"The good Lord," she continued, as she filled up my cup with rich milk (she had no tumblers at all, she said), "taught us to be kind to one another and to be humble, the same as He was kind and humble, although He could have had a palace if He'd chosen, and if we keep His commandments we'll all go to heaven, but if we don't (here the good Mrs. Kelly lowered her voice) we'll be damned in everlasting fire. The Lord tells us so."
I told her that I had heard such things, that I had a grandmother who taught me all about "Bethleham" and the rest——