The Real Charlotte. 213 



it be too much delay on ye to wait till I bile the kittle for a 

 cup o' tay ? Bad cess to Bid Sal ! There isn't as much hot 

 wather in the house this minute as'd write yer name ! " 



" I'm obliged to ye, Norry/' said Julia stiffly, her sick pride 

 evolving a supposition tiiat she could be in want of food ; 

 "but I'm only after my breakfast myself. Indeed," she 

 added, assuming from old habit her usual attitude of medical 

 adviser, "you'd be the better yourself for taking less tea." 



" Is it me ? " replied Norry indignantly. " I take me cup 

 o' tay morning and evening, and if 'twas throwing afther me 

 I wouldn't take more." 



" Give me the cold wather, anyway," said Julia wearily j 

 '* I must go on out of this. It's to Bruff I'm going." 



" In the name o' God what's taking ye into Bruff, you 

 that should be in yer bed, in place of sthreelin' through the 

 counthry this way ? " 



" I got a letter from Lambert to-day," said Julia, putting 

 her hand to her aching head, as if to collect herself, '' and I 

 want to speak to Sir Benjamin about it." 



" Ah, God help yer foolish head ! " said Norry impatiently ; 

 " sure ye might as well be talking to the bird above there," 

 pointing to the cockatoo, who was looking down at them 

 with ghostly solemnity. " The owld fellow's light in his 

 head this long while." 



" Then I'll see some of the family," said Julia ; " they 

 remember my fawther well, and the promise I had about the 

 farm, and they'll not see me wronged." 



" Throth, then, that's thrue," said Norry, with an un- 

 wonted burst of admiration ; " they was always and ever a 

 fine family, and thim that they takes in their hands has 

 the luck o' God ! But what did Lambert say t'ye ? " with 

 a keen glance at her visitor from under her heavy eye- 

 brows. 



Julia hesitated for a moment. 



" Norry Kelly," she said, her voice shaking a little ; " if 

 it wasn't that you're me own mother's sister's child, I would 

 not reveal to you the disgrace that man is trying to put 

 upon me. I got a letter from him this morning saying he'd 

 process me if I didn't pay him at once the half of what's 

 due. And Joyce that has the grazing is bankrupt, and owes 

 me what I'll never get from him." 



