"I was wishin' it!" she wailed. "I was wishin' somethin' 'd happen to him to leave me free here in m' own home!"
"An' that," Mrs. Byrne said, "is the judgment o' heaven on yuh fer carin' more fer yer dishes than yuh did fer yer husband. Yuh're a good manager, Mrs. Cregan, but yuh've been a dang poor wife. Think of yer man first an' yer house after, an' yuh'll be a happier woman, I tell yuh."
"I will that. I will," Mrs. Cregan wept, "if he's spared to me."
"Never fear," Mrs. Byrne said drily. "He'll be spared to yuh."
And he has been spared to her. At first he was suspicious of her subdued manner and remorseful
gentleness; and for a long time he watched her, very warily, with an eye for treachery. Then he understood that she had succumbed to his masterful handling of her, and he was masculinely proud of his conquest.
"MRS. CREGAN SAT AS IF SHE WERE WAITING FOR HER TURN TO ENTER A CONFESSIONAL."
Mrs. Cregan is beginning to hope that she has warded off the predicted bad fortune by her devoutness, but she still has her fears. "Twas the doin's o' the divil," she says to Mrs. Byrne.