TWO SUNDAY AFTERNOONS 257 



Its strands were crisp and strong, and the gold sparkled 

 in the brown. 



" She was stiff enougli about it," she said, replaeing 

 the hairpins and leaning baek against his arm, " an' I 

 towld her up to her face how I'd stop with no one that 

 wouldn't give me every Sunday out. Little I'd think 

 of walkin' away and leavin' her there, herself an' her 

 lodgers ! " The encounter ^was reflected in the toss 

 of her head and the thrust of her under-lip. 



" Wliat did she say when ye said ye wouldn't stop ? " 

 asked her companion, disengaging his arm to light a 

 pipe . 



" She turned about as grand as ye please, and says 

 she, goin' out the kitchen door, ' Ye can be talkin' to 

 me about that to-morra,' says she. The owld fellow 

 was drawin' the water for his drop o' punch, an' says 

 he to her, ' Let Kate go out,' says he, ' I'll mind the 

 door if you and the girls is goin' to church.' He does 

 be good-natured that way." 



" Doesn't he go out himself of a Sunday evening? " 

 The man was extracting a loose match from his pocket 

 as he asked the question, and he asked it with indiffer- 

 ence. 



" Seldom, indeed," said the girl. " I declare ye 

 wouldn't hardly know was he in or out, he's that quiet. 

 He'd walk the stairs from the top of the house before 

 he'd ring the bell, an' afther all I'd sooner answer 

 the bell for him than another." 



A pause followed, in which the pipe was lighted and 

 Kate resumed her position inside her companion's arm. 



" Well now, d'ye know what I think ? " he said— "that 

 ye mightn't get another place so easy if ye left them 

 MeKenzies. By all ye say she's no worse than another, 

 an' I tell you they're a queer old lot, some o' them 

 lodgin'-liouse keepers. They're the sort that 'd run 

 ye out into the street with the polis after yeif ye give 



