“Jawn,” said Mrs. McCaskey, softly, “I’m sorry I was hasty wid ye.”

“‘Twas hasty puddin’, as ye say,” said her husband, “and hurry-up turnips and get-a-move-on-ye coffee.  ’Twas what ye could call a quick lunch, all right, and tell no lie.”

Mrs. McCaskey slipped her arm inside her husband’s and took his rough hand in hers.

“Listen at the cryin’ of poor Mrs. Murphy,” she said. “’Tis an awful thing for a bit of a bye to be lost in this great big city.  If ’twas our little Phelan, Jawn, I’d be breakin’ me heart.”

Awkwardly Mr. McCaskey withdrew his hand.  But he laid it around the nearing shoulder of his wife.

“’Tis foolishness, of course,” said he, roughly, “but I’d be cut up some meself if our little Pat was kidnapped or anything.  But there never was any childer for us.  Sometimes I’ve been ugly and hard with ye, Judy.  Forget it.”

They leaned together, and looked down at the heart-drama being acted below.

Long they sat thus.  People surged along the sidewalk, crowding, questioning, filling the air with rumours, and inconsequent surmises.  Mrs. Murphy ploughed back and forth in their midst, like a soft mountain down which plunged an audible cataract of tears.  Couriers came and went.

Loud voices and a renewed uproar were raised in front of the boarding-house.

“What’s up now, Judy?” asked Mr. McCaskey.

“’Tis Missis Murphy’s voice,” said Mrs. McCaskey, harking.  “She says she’s after finding little Mike asleep behind the roll of old linoleum under the bed in her room.”

Mr. McCaskey laughed loudly.

“That’s yer Phelan,” he shouted, sardonically.  “Divil a bit would a Pat have done that trick.  If the bye we never had is strayed and stole, by the powers, call him Phelan, and see him hide out under the bed like a mangy pup.”

Mrs. McCaskey arose heavily, and went toward the dish closet, with the corners of her mouth drawn down.

Policeman Cleary came back around the corner as the crowd dispersed.  Surprised, he upturned an ear toward the McCaskey apartment, where the crash of irons and chinaware and the ring of hurled kitchen utensils seemed as loud as before.  Policeman Cleary took out his timepiece.

“By the deported snakes!” he exclaimed, “Jawn McCaskey and his lady have been fightin’ for an hour and a quarter by the watch.  The missis could give him forty pounds weight.  Strength to his arm.”

Policeman Cleary strolled back around the corner.

Old man Denny folded his paper and hurried up the steps just as Mrs.
Murphy was about to lock the door for the night.

THE SKYLIGHT ROOM

First Mrs. Parker would show you the double parlours.  You would not dare to interrupt her description of their advantages and of the merits of the gentleman who had occupied them for eight years.  Then you would manage to stammer forth the confession that you were neither a doctor nor a dentist.  Mrs. Parker’s manner of receiving the admission was such that you could never afterward entertain the same feeling toward your parents, who had neglected to train you up in one of the professions that fitted Mrs. Parker’s parlours.