“Now, Mrs. OʼGaghan, no trifling”! Her master spoke sternly and sharply. But Rufus could not speak at all. He was in such a choking passion.
“If so be I have said any harm, sir, for the best of us is errowneous, I axes a humble pardon. Iver since I lose my good husband—and a better husband there cudnʼt be, barrin only the bellises, and I wudnʼt deny upon my oath but what I desarved the spout now and thin—— ”
“Mrs. OʼGaghan”, said Dr. Hutton, trying very hard to look amiable, “do your best for once, I entreat you, to prove yourself, if there is such a thing, a respectable Irishwoman”.
From that moment the tables were turned. Her temper boiled up like a cauldron. It is quite of a piece with a thing that is all pieces—the genuine Irish nature—that, proud as they are of their country, they cannot bear to be told of their citizenship.
“Irish, thin, is it? Irish indade! Well, and I knows Iʼm Irish. And if I ainʼt, what do I care who knows I am”?
She flung up her head superbly, and great tears ran from her eyes. Rufus Hutton perceived his advantage, and, though not at all a mean fellow, he was smarting far too sharply from the many attacks on his vanity, to forego his sweet revenge.
“You remember, then, when the doctor gave you the first–born child, that he made some odd remark, and told you to keep it separate”?
“And how can a poor Irishwoman remimber anything at all”?
“Come, you know very well that you remember that. Now, can you deny it”?