The Real Charlotte. 71 



'* What ! Do you tell me the roofs sound ? " exclaimed 

 Charlotte with genuine interest. 



" I have never examined it, Miss Mullen," replied Julia 

 coldly, " but it keeps the rain out, and I consider that 

 suffeecient." 



" Oh, I'm sure there's not a word to be said against the 

 house," Charlotte made hasty reparation ; " but, indeed, 

 Miss Duffy, I say — and I've heard more than myself say 

 the same thing — that a delicate woman like you has no 

 business to live alone so far from help. The poor Arch- 

 deacon frets about it, I can tell ye. I believe he thinks 

 Father Heffernan'll be raking ye into his fold ! And I can 

 tell ye," concluded Charlotte, with what she felt to be a 

 certain rough pathos, " there's plenty in Lismoyle would be 

 sorry to see your father's daughter die with the wafer in her 

 mouth ! " 



*^ I had no idea the people in Lismoyle were so anxious 

 about me and my affairs," said Miss Duffy. " They're very 

 kind, but I'm able to look afther my soul without their help." 

 " Well, of course, everyone's soul is their own affair ; but, 

 ye know, when no one ever sees ye m your own parish 

 church — well, right or wrong, there are plenty of fools to 

 gab about it." 



The dark bags of skin under Julia Duffy's eyes became 

 slowly red, a signal that this thrust had gone home. She 

 did not answer, and her visitor rose, and moving towards 

 the hermetically sealed window, looked out across the lawn 

 over Julia's domain. Her roundest and weightiest stone 

 was still in her sling, while her eye ran over the grazing 

 cattle in the fields. 



" Is it true what I hear, that Peter Joyce has your grazing 

 this year ? " she said casually. 



" It is quite true," answered Miss Duffy, a little defiantly. 

 A liver attack does not pre-dispose its victims to answer in 

 a Christian spirit questions that are felt to be impertinent. 



"Well," returned Charlotte, still looking out of the 

 window, with her hands deep in the pockets of her black 

 alpaca coat, " I'm sorry for it." 

 '' Why so ? " 



Julia's voice had a sharpness that v/as pleasant to Miss 

 Mullen's ear. 



