“I didn’t know he was called in,” answered Larry.
Kelly regarded him for a moment, disbelief written upon his face. Then he resumed, anxiously:
“Did the owld man put his mark till anything?”
“Yes!”
“Ah!” and Kelly bent his heavy brows. “Wur there anything mention av Martin an’ meself?”
“I didn’t hear nobody mentioned.”
“Humph!” Kelly bit the nail of his thumb viciously and spat over the stair rail. Then, after a pause, longer than the first, he said: “How is the toide?”
“I don’t know.”
“Tim Burns says it’s on the stan’,” said Kelly. “An’ whin it goes down, he’ll go out wid it.”
They waited in silence after this; Rosie’s sobs had ceased, the clergyman was reciting the litany for the dying, and the others were giving the responses. And then their voices were hushed; there was a stir in the room; the door opened and Mary came out.