“Not there!—how and why is that?”
“Sure you ought to know better than me,” said she, fixing her large eyes full upon him. “Ye left the house together, and he never came back since.”
“Oh, perhaps I can guess,” said Jack, pausing for a moment to reflect. “He might have deemed it safer to keep out of the way for a day or two.”
“It's no good deceivin' me, sir,” said she, rising from her seat; “tell me the whole truth. Where is he?”
“That is really more than I can say, my dear Mistress Joan. We parted in Oughterard.”
“And you never saw him after?”
“Never, I assure you.”
“And you never tried to see him?—you never asked what became of him?”
“I concluded, indeed I was certain, that he returned home,” said Jack, but not without some confusion.
“Ay, that was enough for you,” said she, angrily. “If you were a poor labor in' man, you 'd not desert him that had you under his roof and gave you the best he had; but because ye 're a gentleman—”