“Who tould you all this, Biddy? was it herself?”

“Why, thin, partly herself it war who tould me, ma’am, and partly—­; you see, when Mr Barry war in his tantrums and dhrunken like, I didn’t like to be laving Miss Anty alone wid him, and nobody nigh, so I and Terry betook ourselves nigh the door, and, partly heard what was going on; that’s the thruth on it, Mrs Kelly; and, afther a dale of rampaging and scolding, may I niver see glory av’ he didn’t up wid his clenched fist, strik her in the face, and knock her down—­all for one as ’av she wor a dhrunken blackguard at a fair!”

“You didn’t see that, Biddy?”

“No, ma’am—­I didn’t see it; how could I, through the door?—­but I heerd it, plain enough.  I heerd the poor cratur fall for dead amongst the tables and chairs—­I did, Mrs Kelly—­and I heerd the big blow smash agin her poor head, and down she wint—­why wouldn’t she? and he, the born ruffian, her own brother, the big blackguard, stricking at her wid all his force!  Well, wid that ma’am, I rushed into the room—­at laist, I didn’t rush in—­for how could I, and the door locked?—­but I knocked agin and agin, for I war afeard he would be murthering her out and out.  So, I calls out, as loud as I could, as how Miss Anty war wanting in the kitchen:  and wid that he come to the door, and unlocks it as bould as brass, and rushes out into the garden, saying as how Miss Anty war afther fainting.  Well, in course I goes in to her, where he had dragged her upon the sofa, and, thrue enough, she war faint indeed.”

“And, did she tell you, Biddy, that her own brother had trated her that way?”

“Wait, Mrs Kelly, ma’am, till I tell yer how it all happened.  When she comed to herself—­and she warn’t long coming round—­she didn’t say much, nor did I; for I didn’t just like then to be saying much agin the masther, for who could know where his ears were?—­perish his sowl, the blackguard!”

“Don’t be cursing, Biddy.”

“No, ma’am; only he must be cursed, sooner or later.  Well, when she comed to herself, she begged av’ me to help her to bed, and she went up to her room, and laid herself down, and I thought to myself that at any rate it was all over for that night.  When she war gone, the masther he soon come back into the house, and begun calling for the sperrits again, like mad; and Terry said that when he tuk the biling wather into the room, Mr Barry war just like the divil—­as he’s painted, only for his ears.  After that Terry wint to bed; and I and Judy weren’t long afther him, for we didn’t care to be sitting up alone wid him, and he mad dhrunk.  So we turned in, and we were in bed maybe two hours or so, and fast enough, when down come the misthress—­as pale as a sheet, wid a candle in her hand, and begged me, for dear life, to come up into her room to her, and so I did, in coorse.  And then she tould me all—­and, not contint with what he’d done down stairs, but the dhrunken ruffian must come up into her bed-room and swear the most dreadfullest things to her you iver heerd, Mrs Kelly.  The words he war afther using, and the things he said, war most horrid; and Miss Anty wouldn’t for her dear life, nor for all the money in Dunmore, stop another night, nor another day in the house wid him.”