“Is it Anty?  Indeed she is thin:  ating her dinner, upstairs, this very moment;” and she rapped the counter again, and looked her foe in the face.

“Then, with your leave, Mrs Kelly, I’ll step up, and speak to her.  I suppose she’s alone?”

“Indeed she ain’t thin, for she’s the two girls ating wid her, and myself too, barring that I’m just come down at your bidding.  No; we’re not so bad as that, to lave her all alone; and as for your seeing her, Mr Lynch, I don’t think she’s exactly wishing it at present; so, av’ you’ve a message, I’ll take it.”

“You don’t mean to say that Miss Lynch—­my sister—­is in this inn, and that you intend to prevent my seeing her?  You’d better take care what you’re doing, Mrs Kelly.  I don’t want to say anything harsh at present, but you’d better take care what you’re about with me and my family, or you’ll find yourself in a scrape that you little bargain for.”

“I’ll take care of myself, Mr Barry; never fear for me, darling; and, what’s more, I’ll take care of your sister, too.  And, to give you a bit of my mind—­she’ll want my care, I’m thinking, while you’re in the counthry.”

“I’ve not come here to listen to impertinence, Mrs Kelly, and I will not do so.  In fact, it is very unwillingly that I came into this house at all.”

“Oh, pray lave it thin, pray lave it!  We can do without you.”

“Perhaps you will have the civility to listen to me.  It is very unwillingly, I say, that I have come here at all; but my sister, who is, unfortunately, not able to judge for herself, is here.  How she came here I don’t pretend to say—­”

“Oh, she walked,” said the widow, interrupting him; “she walked, quiet and asy, out of your door, and into mine.  But that’s a lie, for it was out of her own.  She didn’t come through the kay-hole, nor yet out of the window.”

“I’m saying nothing about how she came here, but here she is, poor creature!”

“Poor crature, indeed!  She was like to be a poor crature, av’ she stayed up there much longer.”

“Here she is, I say, and I consider it my duty to look after her.  You cannot but be aware, Mrs Kelly, that this is not a fit place for Miss Lynch.  You must be aware that a road-side public-house, however decent, or a village shop, however respectable, is not the proper place for my sister; and, though I may not yet be legally her guardian, I am her brother, and am in charge of her property, and I insist on seeing her.  It will be at your peril if you prevent me.”

“Have you done, now, Misther Barry?”

“That’s what I’ve got to say; and I think you’ve sense enough to see the folly—­not to speak of the danger, of preventing me from seeing my sister.”