“So I did.”
“Well—what did he say about it?”
“Sure an he didn’t say anythin jist thin.”
“But he told you about it, you said.”
“So he did; but it was last night.”
“O, in the night—you saw him in the night—he must have been out then—and I thought he was in bed. O, why wasn’t I with him? Why didn’t he take me? But I suppose he thought I’d be too much overcome, and so he didn’t want to tell me—and did he tell you this, Pat? Tell me all. Tell me all—don’t keep me in suspense.”
At these incoherent words Pat stared at Bart in utter amazement, and for a moment thought that he had lost his senses.
“Suspinse?” he said—“suspinse? What do you mean? You talk as though you’d lost your sivin sinsis! Sure an didn’t you hear it yerself, ivery word? Sure an worn’t ye in the room yourself, listhening? Didn’t ye hear it all?”
“Hear it all? Hear what?” cried Bart. “About what?”
“Why, about the lepers, sure. Sorra a thought I’ve had iver since, except about that same. And I went off, so I did; for I didn’t dare to slape in that leper house, wid a man that lives among the lepers and shakes hands wid them.”