‘That shows how little we know what we do,’ said Mulvaney, putting it
aside. ‘Fire takes all the heart out av the steel, an’ the next time,
may be, that our little man is fighting for his life his bradawl
‘ll break, an’ so you’ll ha’ killed him, manin’ no more than to kape
yourself warm. ‘Tis a recruity’s thrick that. Pass the clanin’-rod,
sorr.’
I snuggled down abased; and after an interval the voice of Mulvaney
began.
‘Did I iver tell you how Dinah Shadd came to be wife av mine?’
I dissembled a burning anxiety that I had felt for some months--ever
since Dinah Shadd, the strong, the patient, and the infinitely tender,
had of her own good love and free will washed a shirt for me, moving in
a barren land where washing was not.
‘I can’t remember,’ I said casually. ‘Was it before or after you made
love to Annie Bragin, and got no satisfaction?’
The story of Annie Bragin is written in another place. It is one of the
many less respectable episodes in Mulvaney’s chequered career.
‘Before--before--long before, was that business av Annie Bragin an’ the
corp’ril’s ghost. Niver woman was the worse for me whin I had married
Dinah. There’s a time for all things, an’ I know how to kape all things
in place--barrin’ the dhrink, that kapes me in my place wid no hope av
comin’ to be aught else.’
‘Begin at the beginning,’ I insisted. ‘Mrs. Mulvaney told me that you
married her when you were quartered in Krab Bokhar barracks.’
‘An’ the same is a cess-pit,’ said Mulvaney piously. ‘She spoke thrue,
did Dinah. ‘Twas this way. Talkin’ av that, have ye iver fallen in love,
sorr?’