“Will not the law touch it?�
“I don’t know. I am going to town to-morrow to find out if there is not some way in which he may be held under the law. As for Esther, I wish she might be sent away from this place—away from his hateful influence and pestiferous power.�
“Ah, could she get away from it? Is there any place where it might not follow her? Mark, wouldn’t it be well for you to see Mrs. McCleary? Surely she could not sanction such possession of her daughter.�
“That is a good idea, Alice. I will go to see her to-day—now. If there’s a heart in that woman I’ll try to find it. This is a mission for which you are better suited, but in your nervous state it may be more than you could do.�
“I would rather trust you,� Alice replied.
Mark rapped at Mrs. McCleary’s door a half hour later, and asked the child who admitted him if he might see her mother.
“Well, well! Oi declare, Mr. Mark, Oi’m delighted if you’ve found toime an’ inclination to give us a little of yer society,� cried Mrs. McCleary, coming forward. “Oi told Esther Oi didn’t see why some of the neighbors didn’t call oftener. We’re always glad to see ’em. And how is Alice, and that noice sister, and the perty girl with her? Oi am shure Alice must enjoy their company so much.� As she paused to take breath, Mark interposed.
“We do both enjoy them very much. But where is Esther, Mrs. McCleary?�
“Esther? O, she is giving the children their baths. Oi have to leave all such work to her now. But she’ll be through varry soon, Oi’m shure. Just help yourself to some of them plums on the table, Misther Mark.�
“Thank you. They are very nice, and I always enjoy eating them. This fruit makes up to us for the lack of apples and other fruits of the East, which we have not started here yet. Nature is compensative. But I want to talk to you, Mrs. McCleary, rather than Esther, and upon a somewhat delicate subject.�