Ha, ha, ha!--well--ha, ha, ha!--but you are a sight to fall in love wid this minute!" she exclaimed, laughing heartily at the blood-stained visage of the other.

"You won't spake, I see.

Divil may care then, if you don't you'll do the other thing--let it alone: but, at any rate, there's the cobwebs for you, if you like to put them on; an' so _bannatht latht_, an' let that be a warnin' to you not to raise your hand to me again.
'A sailor courted a farmer's daughter That lived contageous to the isle of Man,'" &c.
She then directed her steps to the dance in Kilnahushogue, where one would actually suppose, if mirth, laughter, and extraordinary buoyancy of spirits could be depended on, that she was gifted, in addition to her remarkable beauty, with the innocent and delightful disposition of an angel.
The step-mother having dressed the wound as well as she could, sat down by the fire and began to ruminate on the violent contest which had just taken place, and in which she had borne such an unfortunate part.

This was the first open and determined act of personal resistance which she had ever, until that moment, experienced at her step-daughter's hands; but now she feared that, if they were to live, as heretofore, under the same roof, their life would be one of perpetual strife--perhaps of ultimate bloodshed--and that these domestic brawls might unhappily terminate in the death of either.

She felt that her own temper was none of the best, and knew that so long as she was incapable of restraining it, or maintaining her coolness under the provocations to which the violent passions of Sarah would necessarily expose her, so long must such conflicts as that which had just occurred take place between them.
She began now to fear Sarah, with whose remorseless disposition she was too well acquainted, and came to the natural conclusion, that a residence under the same roof was by no means compatible with her own safety.
"She has been a curse to me!" she went on, unconsciously speaking aloud; "for when she wasn't able to bate me herself, her father did it for her.
The divil is said to be fond of his own; an' so does he dote on her, bekase she's his image in everything that's bad.