“Lamh Laudher,” said Meehaul, “whenever a Neil spakes to you, you may know it's hot in friendship.”
“I know that, Meehaul Neil, without hearin' it from you. Spake, what have you to say?”
“There was a time,” observed the other, “when you and I were enemies only because our cleaveens were enemies but now there is, an' you know it, a blacker hatred between us.”
“I would rather there was not, Meehaul; for my own part, I have no ill-will against either you or yours, all you know that; so when you talk of hatred, spake only for yourself.”
“Don't be mane, man,” said Neil; “don't make them that hates you despise you into the bargain.”
Lamh Laudher turned towards him fiercely, and his eye gleamed with passion; but he immediately recollected himself, and simply said—
“What is your business with me this night, Meehaul Neil?”
“You'll know that soon enough—sooner, maybe, than you wish. I now ask you to tell me, if you are an honest man, where you have been?”
“I am as honest, Meehaul, as any man that ever carried the name of Neil upon him, an' yet I won't tell you that, till you show me what right you have to ask me.”
“I b'lieve you forget that I'm Ellen Neil's brother: now, Lamh Laudher, as her brother, I choose to insist on your answering me.”