"This is singular--extraordinary even--but let me know more, though the messenger be altogether so much out of the common way!"
"I t'ought ye 'd say that, when ye come to know me. Is it meself that 's a messenger? and where is there another that can carry news widout spilling any by the way? Nick's a cr'ature, I allows; but the majjor know'd a million times bhetter than to trust an Injin wid sich a jewty. As for Joel, and that set of vagabonds, we'll grind 'em all in the mill, before we've done wid 'em. Let 'em look for no favours, if they wishes no disapp'intment."
Maud sickened at the thought of having any of those sacred feelings connected with Robert Willoughby that she had so long cherished in her inmost heart, rudely probed by so unskilful a hand; though her last conversation with the young soldier had told so much, even while it left so much unsaid, that she could almost kneel and implore Mike to be explicit. The reserve of a woman, notwithstanding, taught her how to preserve her sex's decorum, and to maintain appearances.
"If major Willoughby desired you to communicate anything to me, in particular," she said, with seeming composure, "I am ready to hear it."
"Divil the word did he desire, Miss Maud, for everything was in whispers between us, but jist what I'm about to repait. And here's my stick, that Nick tould me to kape as a reminderer; it 's far bhetter for me than a book, as I can't read a syllable. 'And now, Mike,' says the majjor, says he, 'conthrive to see phratty Miss Maud by herself'----"
"Pretty Miss Maud!" interrupted the young lady, involuntarily.
"Och! it's meself that says that, and sure there 's plenty of r'ason for it; so we'll agree it's all right and proper--'phratty Miss Maud by herself, letting no mortal else know what you are about. That was the majjor's."
"It is very extraordinary!--Perhaps it will be better Michael, if you tell me nothing but what is strictly the major's. A message should be delivered as nearly like the words that were actually sent as possible."
"Wor-r-ds!--And it isn't wor-r-ds at all, that I have to give ye."
"If not a message in words, in what else can it be?--Not in sticks, surely."