Skinadre, thin and mealy, with his coat off, but wearing a waistcoat to
which were attached flannel sleeves, was busily engaged in his agreeable
task of administering to their necessities. Such was his smoothness
of manner, and the singular control which a long life of hypocrisy had
given him over his feelings, that it was impossible to draw any correct
distinction between that which he only assumed, and that which he really
felt. This consequently gave him an immense advantage over every one
with whom he came in contact, especially the artless and candid, and
all who were in the habit of expressing what they thought. We shall,
however, take the liberty of introducing him to the reader, and allow
honest Skinadre to speak for himself.
“They're beggars--them three--that woman and her two children; still my
heart bleeds for them, bekase we should love our neighbors as ourselves;
but I have given away as much meal in charity, an' me can so badly
afford it, as would--I can't now, indeed, my poor woman! Sick--troth
they look sick, an' you look sick yourself. Here, Paddy Lenahan, help
that woman an' her two poor children out of that half bushel of meal
you've got; you won't miss a handful for God's sake.”
This he said to a poor man who had just purchased some oat-meal from
him; for Skinadre was one of those persons who, however he might have
neglected works of mercy himself, took great delight in encouraging
others to perform them.
“Troth it's not at your desire I do it, Darby,” replied the man; “but
bekase she an' they wants it, God help them. Here, poor creature, take
this for the honor of God: an' I'm only sorry, for both our sakes, that
I can't do more.”
“Well, Jemmy Duggan,” proceeded the miser, addressing a new-comer,
“what's the news wid you? They're hard times, Jemmy; we all know that
an' feel it too, and yet we live, most of us, as if there wasn't a God
ta punish us.”
“At all events,” replied the man, “we feel what sufferin' is now, God
help us! Between hunger and sickness, the counthry was never in such a
state widin the memory of man, What, in the name o' God, will become of
the poor people, I know not. The Lord pity them an' relieve them!”
“Amen, amen, Jemmy! Well, Jemmy, can I do any thing for you? But Jemmy,
in regard to that, the thruth is, we have brought all these scourges
on us by our sins and our transgressions; thim that sins, Jemmy, must
suffer.”
“There's no one denyin' it, Darby; but you're axin' me can you do any
thing for me, an' my answer to that is, you can, if you like.”
“Ah! Jemmy, you wor ever an' always a wild, heedless, heerum-skeerum
rake, that never was likely to do much good; little religion ever rested
on you, an' now I'm afeard no signs on it.”
“Well, well, who's widout sin? I'm sure I'm not. What I want is, to know
if you'll credit me for a hundred of meal till the times mends a trifle.
I have the six o' them at home widout their dinner this day, an' must go
widout if you refuse me. When the harvest comes round, I'll pay you.”
“Jemmy, you owe three half-year's, rent; an' as for the harvest an' what
it'll bring, only jist look at the day that's in it. It goes to my heart
to refuse you, poor man; but Jemmy, you see you have brought this on
yourself. If you had been an attentive, industrious man, an' minded
your religion, you wouldn't be as you are now. Six you have at home, you
say?”
“Ay, not to speak of the woman; an' myself. I know you won't, refuse
them, Darby, bekase if we're hard pushed now, it's, a'most every body's
case as well as mine. Be what I may, you know I'm honest.”
“I don't doubt your honesty, Jemmy; but Jemmy, if I sell my meal to a
man that can pay and won't, or if I sell my meal to a man that would pay
and can't, by which do I lose most? There it is, Jemmy--think o' that
now. Six in family, you say?”
“Six in family, wid the woman an' myself.”
“The sorra man livin' feels more for you than I do, an' I would let you
have the meal if I could; but the truth is, I'm makin' up my rent--an'
Jemmy, I lost so much last year by my foolish good nature, an' I gave
away so much on trust, that now I'm brought to a hard pass myself. Troth
I'll fret enough this night for havin' to refuse you. I know it was rash
of me to make the promise I did; but still, God forbid that ever any man
should be able to throw it in my face, an' say that Darby Skinadre ever
broke his promise.”
“What promise?”
“Why, never to sell a pound of meal on trust.”
“God help us, then!--for what to do or where to go I don't know.”
“It goes to my heart, Jemmy, to refuse you--six in family, an' the two
of yourselves. Troth it does, to my very heart itself; but stay, maybe
we may manage it. You have no money, you say?”
“No money now, but won't be so long, plaise God.”
“Well, but haven't you value of any kind?--: sure, God help them, they
can't starve, poor cratures--the Lord pity them!” Here he wiped away a
drop of villainous rheum which ran down his cheek, and he did it with
such an appearance of sympathy, that almost any one would have imagined
it was a tear of compassion for the distresses of the poor man's family.
“Oh! no, they can't starve. Have you no valuables of any kind,
Jemmy!--ne'er a baste now, or anything that way?”
“Why, there's a young heifer; but I'm strugglin' to keep it to help me
in the rent. I was obliged to sell my pig long ago, for I had no way of
feedin' it.”
“Well, bring me the heifer, Jemmy, an' I won't let the crathurs starve.
We'll see what can be done when it comes here. An' now, Jemmy, let me ax
if you wint to hear mass on last Sunday?”
“Troth I didn't like to go in this trim. Peggy has a web of frieze half
made this good while; it'll be finished some time, I hope.”
“Ah! Jemmy, Jemmy, it's no wondher the world's the way it is, for indeed
there's little thought of God or religion in it. You passed last Sunday
like a haythen, an' now you see how you stand to-day for the same.”
“You'll let me bring some o' the meal home wid me now,” said the man;
“the poor cratures tasted hardly anything to-day yet, an' they wor
cryin' whin I left home. I'll come back wid the heifer fullfut. Troth
they're in utther misery, Darby.”
“Poor things!--an' no wondher, wid such a haythen of a father; but,
Jemmy, bring the heifer here first till I look at it, an' the sooner you
bring it here the sooner they'll have relief, the crathurs.”
It is not our intention to follow up this iniquitous bargain any
further; it is enough to say that the heifer passed from Jemmy's
possession into his, at about the fourth part of its value.
To those who had money he was a perfect honey-comb, overflowing with
kindness and affection, expressed in such a profusion of warm and sugary
words, that it was next to an impossibility to doubt his sincerity.
“Darby,” said a very young female, on whose face was blended equal
beauty and sorrow, joined to an expression that was absolutely
death-like, “I suppose I needn't ax you for credit?” He shook his head.
“It's for the couple,” she added, “an' not for myself. I wouldn't ax it
for myself. I know my fault, an' my sin, an' may God forgive myself in
the first place, an' him that brought me to it, an' to the shame that
followed it! But what would the ould couple do now widout me?”
“An' have you no money? Ah, Margaret Murtagh! sinful creature--shame,
shame, Margaret. Unfortunate girl that you are, have you no money?”
“I have not, indeed; the death of my brother Alick left us as we are;
he's gone from them now; but there was no fear of me goin' that wished
to go. Oh, if God in His goodness to them had took me an' spared him,
they wouldn't be sendin' to you this day for meal to keep life in them
till things comes round.”
“Troth I pity them--from my heart I pity them now they're helpless and
ould--especially for havin' sich a daughter as you are; but if it was
my own father an' mother, God rest them, I couldn't give meal out on
credit. There's not in the parish a poorer man than I am. I'm done wid
givin' credit now, thank goodness; an' if I had been so long ago, it
isn't robbed, and ruined, an' beggared by rogues I'd be this day, but a
warm, full man, able and willin' too to help my neighbors; an' it is not
empty handed I'd send away any messenger from your father or mother, as
I must do, although my heart bleeds for them this minute.”
Here once more he wiped away the rheum, with every appearance of regret
and sorrow. In fact, one would almost suppose that by long practice he
had trained one of his eyes--for we ought to have said that there was
one of them more sympathetic than the other--to shed its hypocritical
tear at the right place, and in such a manner, too, that he might claim
all the credit of participating in the very distresses which he refused
to relieve, or by which he amassed his wealth.
The poor heart-broken looking girl, who by the way carried an
unfortunate baby in her arms, literally tottered out of the room,
sobbing bitterly, and with a look of misery and despair that it was
woeful to contemplate.
“Ah, then, Harry Hacket,” said he, passing to another, “how are you?
an' how are you all over in Derrycloony, Harry? not forgettin' the ould
couple?”
“Throth, middlin' only, Darby. My fine boy, Denis, is down wid this
illness, an' I'm wantin' a barrel of meal from you till towards
Christmas.”
“Come inside, Harry, to this little nest here, till I tell you
something; an', by the way, let your father know I've got a new prayer
that he'll like to learn, for it's he that's the pious man, an' attinds
to his duties--may God enable him! and every one that has the devotion
in the right place; _amin a Chiernah!_”
He then brought Hacket into a little out-shot behind the room in which
the scales were, and shutting the door, thus proceeded in a sweet,
confidential kind of whisper--
“You see, Harry, what I'm goin' to say to you is what I'd not say
to e'er another in the parish, the divil a one--God pardon me for
swearin'--_amin a Chiernah!_ I'm ruined all out--smashed down and broke
horse and foot; there's the Slevins that wint to America, an' I lost
more than thirty pounds by them.”
“I thought,” replied Hacket, “they paid you before they went; they were
always a daicent and an honest family, an' I never heard any one speak
an ill word o' them.”
“Not a penny, Harry.”
“That's odd, then, bekaise it was only Sunday three weeks, that Murty
Slevin, their cousin, if you remember, made you acknowledge that they
paid you, at the chapel green.”
“Ay, an' I do acknowledge; bekaise, Harry, one may as well spake
charitably of the absent as not; it's only in private to you that I'm
lettin' out the truth.”
“Well, well,” exclaimed the other, rather impatiently, “what have they
to do wid us?”
“Ay, have they; it was what I lost by them an' others--see now, don't
be gettin' onpatient, I bid you--time enough for that when you're
refused--that prevints me from bein' able to give credit as I'd wish.
I'm not refusin' you, Harry; but _achora_, listen; you'll bring your
bill at two months, only I must charge you a trifle for trust, for
chances, or profit an' loss, as the schoolmasther says; but you're to
keep it a saicret from livin' mortal, bekaise if it 'ud get known in
these times that I'd do sich a thing, I'd have the very flesh ait off
o' my bones by others wantin' the same thing; bring me the bill, then,
Harry, an' I'll fill it up myself, only be _dhe husth_ (* hold your
tongue) about it.”
Necessity forces those who are distressed to comply with many a
rapacious condition of the kind, and the consequence was that Hacket did
what the pressure of the time compelled him to do, passed his bill to
Skinadre, at a most usurious price, for the food which was so necessary
to his family.
It is surprising how closely the low rustic extortioner and the city
usurer upon a larger scale resemble each other in the expression of
their sentiments, in their habits of business, their plausibility,
natural tact, and especially, in that hardness of heart and utter want
of all human pity and sympathy, upon which the success of their black
arts of usury and extortion essentially depends. With extortion in all
its forms Skinadre, for instance, was familiar. From those who were poor
but honest, he got a bill such as he exacted from Hacket, because he
knew that, cost what it might to them, he was safe in their integrity.
If dishonest, he still got a bill and relied upon the law and its cruel
list of harassing and fraudulent expenses for security. From others he
got property of all descriptions; from some, butter, yarn, a piece of
frieze, a pig, a cow, or a heifer. In fact, nothing that possessed value
came wrong to him, so that it is impossible to describe adequately the
web of mischief which this blood-sucking old spider contrived to spread
around him, especially for those whom he knew to be too poor to avail
themselves of a remedy against his villany.
“Molly Cassidy, how are you?” he said, addressing a poor looking woman
who carried a parcel of some description rolled up under her cloak; “how
are all the family, achora?”
“Glory be to God for it, they can scarcely be worse;” replied the woman,
in that spirit of simple piety and veneration for the Deity, which in
all their misery characterizes the Irish people; “but sure we're only
sufferin' like others, an' indeed not so bad as many; there's Mick
Kelly has lost his fine boy Lanty; and his other son, young Mick, isn't
expected to live, an' all wid this sickness, that was brought on them,
as it is everywhere, wid bad feedin'.”
“They're miserable times, Molly, at least I find them so; for I dunna
how it happens, but every one's disappointment falls upon me, till they
have me a'most out of house an' home--throth it 'ud be no wondher I'd
get hard-hearted some day wid the way I'm thrated an' robbed by every
one; aye, indeed, bekase I'm good-natured, they play upon me.”
The poor creature gave a faint smile, for she knew the man's character
thoroughly.
“I have a dish of butther here, Darby,” she said, “an' I want meal
instead of it.”
“Butther, Molly; why thin, Molly, sure it isn't to me you're bringing
butther--me that has so much of it lyin' on my hands here already. Sure,
any way, it's down to dirt since the wars is over--butther is; if it
was anything else but butther, Molly: but--it's of no use; I've too
much of it.”
“The sorra other thing I have, thin, Mr. Skinadre; but sure you had
betther look at it, an' you'll find it's what butther ought to be, firm,
claine, and sweet.”
“I can't take it, achora; there's no market for it now.”
“Here, as we're distressed, take it for sixpence a pound, and that's
the lowest price--God knows, if we wern't as we are, it isn't for that
you'd get it.”
“Troth, I dar' say, you're ill off--as who isn't in these times? an'
it's worse they're gettin' an' will be gettin' every day. Troth, I say,
my heart bleeds for you; but we can't dale; oh, no! butther, as I said,
is only dirt now.”
“For God's sake, thin,” exclaimed the alarmed creature, “take it for
whatever you like.”
“It 'ud go hard wid me to see your poor family in a state of outther
want,” he replied, “an' it's not in my nature to be harsh to a
struggling person---so whether I lose or gain, I'll allow you
three-pence a pound for it.”
A shade of bitterness came across her features at this iniquitous
proposal; but she felt the truth of that old adage in all its severity,
that necessity has no law.
“God help us,” she exclaimed--“threepence a pound for such butther as
this!--however, it's the will of God sure, an' it can't be helped--take
it.”
“Ay, it's aisy said, take it; but not to say what'll I do wid it, when
I have it; however, that's the man I am, an' I know how it'll end wid
me--sarvin' every one, workin' for every one, an' thinkin' of every one
but myself, an' little thanks or gratitude for all--I know I'm not fit
for sich a world--but still it's a consolation to be doin' good to our
fellow-creatures when we can, an' that's what lightens my heart.”
A woman now entered, whose appearance excited general sympathy, as was
evident from the subdued murmurs of compassion which were breathed
from the persons assembled, as soon as she entered the room. There
was something about her which, in spite of her thin and worn dress,
intimated a consciousness of a position either then or at some previous
time, above that of the common description of farmer's wives. No one
could mistake her for a highly-educated woman--but there was in her
appearance that decency of manner resulting from habits of independence
and from moral feeling, which at a first glance, whether it be
accompanied by superior dress or not, indicates something which is felt
to entitle its proprietor to unquestionable respect. The miser, when she
entered, had been putting away the dish of butter into the outshot we
have mentioned, so that he had not yet an opportunity of seeing her,
and, ere he returned to the scales, another female possessing probably
not less interest to the reader, presented herself--this was Mave or
Mabel, the young and beautiful daughter of the pious and hospitable
Jerry Sullivan.
Skinadre on perceiving the matron who preceded her, paused for a moment,
and looked at her with a wince in his thin features that might be taken
for an indication of either pleasure or pain. He' closed the sympathetic
eye, and wiped it--but this not seeming to satisfy him, he then closed
both, and blew his nose with a little skeleton mealy handkerchief that
lay on a sack beside him for that purpose.
“Hem--a-hem! why, thin, Mrs. Dalton, it isn't to my poor place I
expected you would come.”
“Darby,” she replied, “there is no use for any length of conversation
between you and me--I'm here contrary to the wishes of my family--but I
am a mother, and cannot look upon their destitution without feeling
that I should not allow my pride to stand between them and death: we are
starving, I mean--they are; and I'm come to ask you for credit; if we
are ever able to pay you, we will; if not, it's only one good act done
to a family that often did many to you when they thought you grateful.”
“I'm the worst in the world--I'm the worst in the world,” replied
Skinadre; “but it wasn't till I knew that you'd be put out o' your farm
that I offered for it, and now you've taken away my carrecther, an'
spoken ill o' me everywhere, an' said that I bid for it over your heads;
ay, indeed, an' that it was your husband that set me up, by the way--oh,
yes--an' supposin' it was, an' I'm not denyin' it, but is that any
raisin that I'd not bid for a good farm, when I knew that yez 'ud be put
out of it?”
“I am now spakin' about the distress of our family,” said Mrs. Dalton,
“you know that sickness has been among us, and is among us--poor Tom is
just able to be up, but that's all.”
“Troth, an' it 'ud be well for you all, an' for himself too, that he had
been taken away afore he comes in a bad end. What he will come too, if
God hasn't said it. I hope he feels the affliction he brought on
poor Ned Munay an' his family by the hand he made of his unfortunate
daughter.”
“He does feel it. The death of her brother and their situation has
touched his heart, an' he's only waitin' for better health and better
times to do her justice; but now what answer do you give me?”
“Why, this: I'm harrished by what I've done for every one; an'--an'--the
short and the long of it is, that I've naither male nor money to throw
away. I couldn't afford it and I can't. I'm a rogue, Mrs. Dalton--a
miser, an extortioner, an ungrateful knave, and everything that is bad
an' worse than another; an' for that raison, I say, I have naither male
nor money to throw away. That's what I'd say if I was angry; but I'm not
angry. I do feel for you an' them; still I can't afford to do what you
want, or I'd do it, for I like to do good for evil, bad as I am. I'm
strivin' to make up my rent an' to pay an unlucky bill that I have
due to-morrow, and doesn't know where the money's to come from to meet
both.”
“Mave Sullivan, achora, what can I--”
Mrs. Dalton, from her position in the room, could not have noticed the
presence of Mave Sullivan, but even had she been placed otherwise,
it would have been somewhat difficult to get a glimpse of the young
creature's face. Deeply did she participate in the sympathy which was
felt for the mother of her mother, and so naturally delicate were her
feelings, that she had drawn up the hood of her cloak, lest the other
might have felt the humiliation to which Mave's presence must have
exposed her by the acknowledgment of her distress. Neither was this all
the gentle and generous girl had to suffer. She experienced, in her own
person, as well as Mrs. Dalton did, the painful sense of degradation
which necessity occasions, by a violation of that hereditary spirit of
decent pride and independence which the people consider as the prestige
of high respect, and which, even while it excites compassion and
sympathy, is looked upon, to a certain extent, as diminished by even a
temporary visitation of poverty. When the meal-man, therefore, addressed
her, she unconsciously threw the hood of her cloak back, and disclosed
to the spectators a face burning with blushes and eyes filled with
tears. The tears, however, were for the distress of Mrs. Dalton and her
family, and the blushes for the painful circumstances which compelled
her at once to witness them, and to expose those which were left under
her own careworn father's roof. Mrs. Dalton, however, on looking round
and perceiving what seemed to be an ebullition merely of natural shame,
went over to her with a calm but mournful manner that amounted almost to
dignity.
“Dear Mave,” she said, “there is nothing here to be ashamed of. God
forbid that the struggle of an honest family with poverty should bring
a blot upon either your good name or mine. It does not, nor it will not:
so dry your tears, my darlin' girl; there are better times before us
all, I trust. Darby Skinadre,” she added, turning to the miser, “you
are both hard-hearted and ungrateful, or you would remember, in our
distress, the kindness we showed you in yours. If you can cleanse your
conscience from the stain of ingratitude, it must be by a change of
life.”
“Whatever stain there may be on my ungrateful conscience,” he replied,
turning up his red eyes, as it were with thanksgiving, “there's not the
stain of blood and murdher on it--that's one comfort.”
Mrs. Dalton did not seem to hear him, neither did she seem to look in
the direction of where he stood. As the words were uttered she had
been in the act of extending her hand to Mave Sullivan, who had hers
stretched out to receive it. There now occurred, however, a mutual
pause. Her hand was withdrawn, as was that of Mave also, who had
suddenly become pale as death.
“God bless you, my darlin' girl!” exclaimed Mrs. Dalton, sighing, as
if with some hidden sorrow; “God bless you and yours, prays my unhappy
heart this day!”
And with these words she was about to depart, when Mave, trembling and
much agitated, laid her hand gently and timidly upon her,--adding, in a
low, sweet, tremulous voice,
“My heart is free from that suspicion--I can't tell why--but I don't
believe it.”
And while she spoke, her small hand gradually caught that of Mrs.
Dalton, as a proof that she would not withhold the embrace on that
account. Mrs. Dalton returned her pressure, and at the same moment
kissed the fair girl's lips, who sobbed a moment or two in her arms,
where she threw herself. The other again invoked a blessing upon her
head, and walked out, having wiped a few tears from her pale cheeks.
The miser looked upon this exhibition of feeling with some surprise; but
as his was not a heart susceptible of the impressions it was calculated
to produce, he only said in a tone of indifference:
“Well, to be sure now, Mave, I didn't expect to see you shakin' hands
wid and kissin' Condy Dalton's wife, at any rate, considerin' all that
has happened atween the families. However, it's good to be forgivin';
I hope it is; indeed I know that; for it comes almost to a feelin' in
myself. Well, _achora_, what am I to do for you?”
“Will you let me speak to you inside a minute?” she asked.
“Will I? Why, then, to be sure I will; an' who knows but it's my
daughter-in-law I might have you yet, _avillish!_ Yourself and Darby's
jist about an age. Come inside, _ahagur_.”
Their dialogue was not of very long duration. Skinadre, on returning to
the scales, weighed two equal portions of oatmeal, for one of which Mave
paid him.
“I will either come or send for this,” she said laying her hand on the
one for which she had paid. “If I send any one, I'll give the token I
mentioned.”
“Very well, a suchar--very well,” he replied; “it's for nobody livin'
but yourself I'd do it; but sure, now that I must begin to coort you for
Darby, it won't be aisy to refuse you for anything in raison.”
“Mind, then,” she observed, as she seized one of the portions, in order
to proceed home; “mind,” said she, laying her hand upon that which she
was leaving behind her; “mind it's for this one I have paid you.”
“Very well, achora, it makes no difference; sure a kiss o' them red,
purty lips o' yours to Darby will pay the inthrest for all.”
Two other females now made their appearance, one with whom our readers
are already acquainted. This was no other than the prophet's wife,
who had for her companion a woman whom neither she herself nor any one
present knew.
“Mave Sullivan, darlin',” exclaimed the former, “I'm glad to see you.
Are you goin' home, now?”
“I am, Nelly,” replied Mave, “jist on my step.”
“Well, thin, if you stop a minute or two, I'll be part o' the way wid
you. I have somethin' to mention as we go along.”
“Very well, then,” replied Mave; “make as much haste as you can, Nelly,
for I'm in a hurry;” and an expression of melancholy settled upon her
countenance as she spoke.
The stranger was a tall thin woman, much about the age and height of the
prophet's 'wife, but neither so lusty nor so vigorous in appearance,
She was but indifferently dressed, and though her features had evidently
been handsome in her younger days, yet there was now a thin, shrewish
expression about the nose, and a sharpness about the compressed lips,
and those curves which bounded in her mouth, that betokened much
firmness if not obstinancy in her character, joined to a look which
might as well be considered an indication of trial and suffering, as of
a temper naturally none of the best.
On hearing Mave Sullivan's name mentioned, she started, and looked at
her keenly, and for a considerable time; after which she asked for
a drink of water, which she got in the kitchen, where she sat, as it
seemed to rest a little.
Nelly, in the meantime, put her hand in a red, three-cornered pocket
that hung by her side, and pulling out a piece of writing, presented it
to the meal man. That worthy gentleman, on casting his eye over it, read
as follows:
“Dear Skinadre: Give Daniel M'Gowan, otherwise the Black Prophet, any
quantity of meal necessary for his own family, which please charge, (and
you know why,) to your friend,
“Dick o' the Grange, Jun.”
Skinadre's face, on perusing this document, was that of a man who felt
himself pulled in different directions by something at once mortifying
and pleasant. He smiled at first, then bit his lips, winked one eye,
then another; looked at the prophet's wife with complacency, but
immediately checked himself, and began to look keen and peevish. This,
however, appeared to be an error on the other side; and the consequence
was, that, after some comical alterations, his countenance settled down
into its usual expression.
“Troth,” said he, “that same Dick o' the Grange, as he calls himself,
is a quare young gintleman; as much male as you want--a quare, mad--your
family's small, I think?”
“But sharp an' active,” she replied, with a hard smile, as of one who
cared not for the mirth she made, “as far as we go.”
“Ay,” said he, abruptly, “divil a much--God pardon me for swearin'--ever
they wor for good that had a large appetite. It's a bad sign of either
man or woman. There never was a villain hanged yet that didn't ait more
to his last breakfast than ever he did at a meal in his life before.
How-an-ever, one may as well have a friend; so I suppose, we must give
you a thrifle.”
When her portion was weighed out, she and Mave Sullivan left this scene
of extortion together, followed by the strange woman, who seemed, as
it were, to watch their motions, or at least to feel some particular
interest in them.
He had again resumed his place at the scales, and was about to proceed
in his exactions, when the door opened, and a powerful young man, tall,
big boned and broad shouldered, entered the room, leading or rather
dragging with him the poor young-woman and her child, who had just left
the place in such bitterness and affliction. He was singularly handsome,
and of such resolute and manly bearing, that it was impossible not to
mark him as a person calculated to impress one with a strong anxiety to
know who and what he might be. On this occasion his cheek was blanched
and his eye emitted a turbid fire, which could scarcely be determined as
that of indignation or illness.
“Is it thrue,” he asked, “that you've dared to refuse to
this--this--unfor--is it thrue that you've dared to refuse this girl and
her starvin' father and mother the meal she wanted? Is this thrue, you
hard-hearted ould scoundrel?--bekaise if it is, by the blessed sky above
us, I'll pull the wind-pipe out of you, you infernal miser!”
He seized unfortunate Skinadre by the neck, as he spoke, and almost at
the same moment forced him to project his tongue about three inches
out of his mouth, causing his face at the same time to assume, by the
violence of the act, an expression of such comic distress and terror, as
it was difficult to look upon with gravity.
“Is it thrue,” he repeated, in a voice of thunder, “that you've dared to
do so scoundrelly an act, an' she, the unfortunate creature, famishing
wid hunger herself?”
While he spake, he held Skinadre's neck as if in a vice--firm in the
same position--and the latter, of course, could do nothing more than
turn his ferret eyes round as well as he could, to entreat him to relax
his grip.
“Don't choke him, Tom,” exclaimed Hacket, who came forward, to
interpose; “you'll strangle him; as Heaven's above, you will.”
“An' what great crime would that be?” answered the other, relaxing his
awful grip of the miser. “Isn't he an' every cursed meal-monger like
him a curse and a scourge to the counthry--and hasn't the same counthry
curses and scourges enough widhout either him or them? Answer me now,”
he proceeded, turning to Skinadre, “why did you send her away widout the
food she wanted?”
“My heart bled for her; but--”
“It's a lie, you born hypocrite--it's a lie--your heart never bled for
anything, or anybody.”
“But you don't know,” replied the miser, “what I lost by--”
“It's a lie, I say,” thundered out the gigantic young fellow, once more
seizing the unfortunate meal-monger by the throat, when out again went
his tongue, like a piece of machinery touched by a spring, and again
were the red eyes now almost starting out of his head, turned round,
whilst he himself was in a state of suffocation, that rendered his
appearance ludicrous beyond description--“it's a lie, I say, for you
have neither thruth nor heart--that's what we all know.”
“For Heaven's sake, let the man go,” said Hacket, “or you'll have his
death to answer for “--and as he spoke he attempted to unclasp the young
man's grip; “Tom Dalton, I say, let the man go.”
Dalton, who was elder brother to the lover of Mave Sullivan, seized
Hacket with one of his hands, and spun him like a child to the other end
of the room.
“Keep away,” he exclaimed, “till I settle wid him--here now, Skinadre,
listen to me--you refused my father credit when we wanted it, although
you knew we were honest--you refused him credit when we were turned out
of our place, although you knew the sickness was among us--well, you
know whether we that wor your friends, an'--my father at least--the
makin' of you”--and as he spoke, he accompanied every third word by
a shake or two, as a kind of running commentary upon what he said;
“ay--you did--you knew it well, and I could bear all that; but I can't
bear you to turn this unfortunate girl out of your place, widout what
she wants, and she's sinkin' wid hunger herself. If she's in distress,
'twas I that brought her to it, an' to shame an' to sorrow too--but I'll
set all right for you yet, Margaret dear--an' no one has a betther right
to spake for her.”
“Tom,” said the young woman, with a feeble voice, “for the love of God
let him go or he'll drop.”
“Not,” replied Dalton, “till he gives you what you come for. Come now,”
he proceeded, addressing the miser, “weigh her. How much will you be
able to carry, Margaret?”
“Oh, never mind, now, Tom,” she replied, “I don't want any, it's the
ould people at home--it's them--it's them.”
“Weigh her out,” continued the other, furiously; “weigh her out a stone
of meal, or by all the lies that ever came from your lips, I'll squeeze
the breath out of your body, you deceitful ould hypocrite.”
“I will,” said the miser, panting, and adjusting his string of a cravat,
“I will, Tom; here, I ain't able, weigh it yourself--I'm not--indeed I'm
not able,” said he, breathless; “an' I was thinkin when you came in of
sendin' afther her, bekase, when I heard of the sickness among them,
that I mayn't sin, but I found my heart bleedin' inwar--”
[Illustration: PAGE 807-- Tom's clutches were again at his throat]
Tom's clutches were again at his throat. “Another lie,” he exclaimed,
“and you'r a gone man. Do what I bid you.”
Skinadre appeared, in point of fact, unable to do so, and Dalton seeing
this, weighed the unhappy young woman a stone of oatmeal, which, on
finding it too heavy for her feeble strength, he was about to take up
himself when he put his hands to his temples, then staggered and fell.
They immediately gathered about him to ascertain the cause of this
sudden attack, when it appeared that he had become insensible. His brow
was now pale and cold as marble, and a slight dew lay upon his broad
forehead; his shirt was open, and exposed to view a neck and breast,
which, although sadly wasted, were of surpassing whiteness and great
manly beauty.
Margaret, on seeing him fall, instantly placed her baby in the hands of
another woman, and flying to him, raised his head and laid it upon her
bosom; whilst the miser, who had now recovered, shook his head, lifted
his hands, and looked as if he felt that his house was undergoing
pollution. In the meantime, the young woman bent her mouth down to his
ear, and said, in tones that were wild and hollow, and that had more of
despair than even of sorrow in them--
“Tom, oh, Tom, are you gone?--hear me!”
But he replied not to her. “Ah! there was a day,” she added, looking
with a mournful smile around, “when he loved to listen to my voice; but
that day has passed forever.”
He opened his eyes as she spoke; hers were fixed upon him. He felt a few
warm tears upon his face, and she exclaimed in a low voice, not designed
for other ears--
“I forgive you all, Tom, dear--I forgive you all!”
He looked at her, and starting to his feet, exclaimed--
“Margaret, my own Margaret, hear me! She is dyin',” he shouted, in a
hoarse and excited voice--“she is dyin' with want. I see it all. She's
dead!”
It was too true; the unhappy girl had passed into another life; but,
whether from a broken heart, caused by sin, shame, and desertion, or
from famine and the pressure of general destitution and distress, could
never properly be ascertained.
“I see!” exclaimed Dalton, his eyes again blazing, and his voice hollow
with emotion--“I see--there she lies; and who brought her to that? But I
intended to set all right. Ay--there she lies. An' again, how are we at
home? Brought low down, down to a mud cabin! Now, Dick o' the Grange,
an' now, Darby Skinadre--now for revenge. The time is come. I'll take my
place at the head of them, and what's to be done, must be done. Margaret
Murtagh, you're lying dead before me, and by the broken heart you died
of--”
He could add no more; but with these words, tottering and frantic, he
rushed out of the miser's house.
“Wid the help o' God, the young savage is as mad as a March hare,”
observed Skinadre, coolly; “but, as it's all over wid the unfortunate
crature, I don't see why an honest man should lose his own, at any
rate.”
Whilst uttering these words, he seized the meal, and deliberately
emptied it back into the chest from which young Dalton had taken it.