After her duties were over, Barney said, mopping his brow:  “Faix, but the noight is warm.  A stroll in the air wudn’t be bad, oi’m a-thinkin’.”

“Oi’m cool as a cowcumber,” remarked Sally.  “We’ll wait for ye till ye goes out and gits cooled off;” and she sat down complacently, while the cook and the laundress tittered.

An angry sparkle began to assert itself in Barney’s blue eyes, and he remarked drily, as he took his hat, “Yez moight wait longer than yez bargained for.”

The shrewd girl saw that she was at the length of her chain, and sprung up, saying:  “Oh, well, since the mistress invited ye so politely, ye’s company, and it’s me duty to thry to entertain ye.  Where shall we go?” she added, as she passed out with him.

“To the rustic sate, sure.  Where else shud we go?”

“A rustic sate is a quare place for a stroll.”

“Oi shall have so much walkin’ on me bate in New York, that it’s well to begin settin’ down aready, oi’m a-thinkin’.”

“Why, Barney, ye’re going to be a reg’lar tramp.  Who’d ’a thought that ye’d come down to that.”

“Ah! arrah, wid ye nonsense!  Sit ye down here, for oi’m a-goin’ to spake plain the noight.  Noo, by the Holy Vargin, oi’m in arenest.  Are ye goin’ to blow hot, or are ye goin’ to blow could?”

“Considerin’ the hot night, Barney, wouldn’t it be better for me to blow could?”

Barney scratched his head in perplexity.  “Ye know what I mane,” he ejaculated.

“Where will ye foind the girl that tells all she knows?”

“O Sally, me darlint, what’s the use of batin’ around the bush?  Ye know that a cat niver looked at crame as oi look on ye,” said Barney, in a wheedling tone, and trying the tactics of coaxing once more.

He sat down beside her and essayed with his insinuating arm to further his cause as his words had not done.

“Arrah, noo, Barney Ghegan, what liberties wud ye be takin’ wid a respectable girl?” and she drew away decidedly.

He sprung to his feet and exploded in the words:  “Sally Maguire, will ye be me woife?  By the holy poker!  Answer, yis or no.”

Sally rose, also, and in equally pronounced tones replied:  “Yes, Barney Ghegan, I will, and I’ll be a good and faithful one, too.  It’s yeself that’s been batin’ round the bush.  Did ye think a woman was a-goin’ to chase ye over hill and down dale and catch ye by the scruff of the neck?  What do ye take me for?”

“Oi takes ye for better, Sally, me darlint;” and then followed sounds suggesting the popping of a dozen champagne corks.

Mr. Vosburgh, his wife, and Marian had been chatting quietly on the piazza, unaware of the scene taking place in the screening shrubbery until Barney’s final question had startled the night like a command to “stand and deliver.”

Repressing laughter with difficulty they tiptoed into the house and closed the door.