"You're his daughter, you say ?" "Ay, I do say so." "Then you know a young man by name Pierce--och, what am I sayin'!--by name Charley Hanlon ?" "To be sure I do--I'm not ashamed of knowin' Charles Hanlon." "You have a good opinion of him, then ?" "I have a good opinion of him, but not so good as I had thought." "Mush a why then, might one ask ?" "I'm afeard he's a cowardly crathur, and rather unmanly a thrifle.

I like a man to be a man, an' not to get as white as a sheet, an' cowld as a tombstone, bekaise he hears what he thinks to be a groan at night, an' it may be nothin' but an owld cow behind a ditch.

Ha! ha! ha!" "An' where did he hear the groan ?" "Why, here where we're standin'.

Ha! ha! ha! I was thinkin' of it since, an' I did hear somethin' very like a groan; but what about it?
Sich a night as last night would make any one groan that had a groan in them." "You spoke about ditches, but sure there's no ditches here." "Divil a matther--who cares what it was?
What did you want wid my father ?" "It was yourself that I wanted to see." "Faix, an' you've seen me, then, an' the full o' your eye you tuck out o' me.

You'll know me again, I hope." "Is your mother livin' ?" "No." "How long is she dead, do you know ?" "I do not; I hardly remember anything about her.