"It does not, ma'm.--I'm going back to my work."
"Be a gentleman, O'Reilly," said his wife pleadingly. "Won't you offer
Mr. O'Grady a bottle of stout or a drop of spirits?"
The youth intervened hastily, for it is well to hide one's vices from
one's family--
"Oh no, ma'm, not at all," said he, "I never drink intoxicating
liquors."
"Splendid," said the beaming lady. "You're better without it. If you
knew the happy homes it has ruined, and the things the clergy say about
it you'd be astonished. I only take it myself for the rheumatism, but
I never did like it, did I, O'Reilly?"
"Never, ma'm," was his reply. "I only take it myself because my
hearing is bad. Now, listen to me, young man. You want to marry Julia
Elizabeth, and I'll be glad to see her married to a sensible, sober,
industrious husband.--When I spoke about her a minute ago I was only
joking."
"I knew it all the time," said his wife. "Do you remember, Mr.
O'Grady, I winked at you?"
"The girl is a good girl," said her husband, "and well brought up."
"Yes," said his wife, "her hair reaches down to her waist, and she won
a prize for composition--Jessica's First Prayer, all about a girl
with----"