"I thought as much," said Bridget. "Come back here into the shade of the shrubbery, Norah; I guessed last night that you were at the bottom of this. Don't you know that you have behaved disgracefully? Do you think my father will help you to marry Pat after such conduct as this? No, don't go down on your knees; I am not inclined to intercede for you at present. I am not inclined to take your part. You must go this instant to the place where you have hidden Janet May. There is not a moment to lose; go and bring her back at once!"
Norah began to cry feebly.
"You are hard on me," she sobbed, "and I done it for you—Pat and me, we done it for you. We meant no harm either. The young Englisher girl have come to no grief—leastways, nothing but a bit of a fright, and she'll do what we wants if you don't spoil everything, Miss Bridget."
"I don't understand you, Norah; I don't feel even inclined to listen to you. You must go this minute and release poor Janet."
CHAPTER XXVIII. WHAT THE O'HARAS SAID TO ONE ANOTHER.
The race of human beings who can neither read nor write are fast vanishing from the face of the civilized earth. They used, however, to abound in great numbers in old Ireland, and, strange as it may seem, these so-called uneducated people have proved themselves to be some of the shrewdest in the world.
For, never reading the books of men, they are always perusing the greater book of nature. Unacquainted with the art of writing, they trust absolutely to their memories. The observation, therefore, of the Irish peasant can scarcely be credited by those who have never come across him.
Norah had made up her mind that Janet should not be released from the hiding-place to which she and Pat had spirited her until she made full confession of her own part in making Bridget unhappy. It is true Norah had never heard the tale, but she seemed to know as much about it as if she had been in everybody's confidence, and had even joined the Fancy Fair Committee, and sat in Mrs. Freeman's schoolroom when Bridget, under Janet's directions, cribbed her lessons.