XX. VERY LIBERAL


When the widow left the parlour, after having placed her guest in
the charge of her daughters, she summoned her son to follow her down
stairs, and was very careful not to leave behind her the notice which
Daly had placed on the table. As soon as she found herself behind
the shutter of her little desk, which stood in the shop-window, she
commenced very eagerly spelling it over. The purport of the notice was,
to inform her that Barry Lynch intended immediately to apply to the
magistrates to commit her and her son, for conspiring together to
inveigle Anty into a marriage; and that the fact of their having done
so would be proved by Mr Moylan, who was prepared to swear that he
had been present when the plan had been arranged between them. The
reader is aware that whatever show of truth there might be for this
accusation, as far as Martin and Moylan himself were concerned, the
widow at any rate was innocent; and he can conceive the good lady's
indignation at the idea of her own connection, Moylan, having been
seduced over to the enemy. Though she had put on a bold front against
Daly, and though she did not quite believe that Barry was in earnest in
taking proceedings against her, still her heart failed her as she read
the legal technicalities of the papers she held in her hand, and turned
to her son for counsel in considerable tribulation.

"But there must be something in it, I tell you," said she. "Though
Barry Lynch, and that limb o' the divil, young Daly, 'd stick at nothin
in the way of lies and desait, they'd niver go to say all this about
Moylan, unless he'd agree to do their bidding."

"That's like enough, mother: I dare say Moylan has been talked