to her severely. No, you needn't smile; I was severe. 'Will you
kindly do your duty, and keep the children quiet as they pass
through the halls?' I said. 'It is never too soon to teach them to
obey the rules of a public place, and to be considerate of older
people.' She seemed awestruck. But when she found her tongue she
stammered, 'Sure, ma'am, I've tould thim three times this day
already that when their father comes he'll bate thim with a
blackthorn stick!'

"Naturally I was horrified. This, I thought, would explain
everything: no mother, and an irritable, cruel father.

"'Will he really do such a thing?' I asked, feeling as if I must
know the truth.

"'Sure he will not, ma'am!' she answered cheerfully. 'He wouldn't
lift a feather to thim, not if they murdthered the whole
counthryside, ma'am.'

"Well, they travelled third class to Cork, and we came first, so we
did not meet, and I did not ask their surnames; but it seems that
they were being brought to their father, whom I met many years ago
in America."

As she did not volunteer any further information, we did not like to
ask her where, how many years ago, or under what circumstances.
'Teasing' of this sort does not appeal to the sophisticated at any
time, but it seems unspeakably vulgar to touch on matters of
sentiment with a woman of middle age. If she has memories, they are
sure to be sad and sacred ones; if she has not, that perhaps is