"I lave her wid you," he said, addressing Mrs. Burke with tears in his
eyes, "as the only treasure an' happiness I have in this world. She is
the poor man's lamb, as I have hard read out of Scripture wanst; an' in
lavin' her undher your care, I lave all my little hopes in this world
wid her. I trust, ma'am, you'll guard her an' look afther her as if she
was one of your own."
This unlucky allusion might have broken up the whole contemplated
arrangement, had not Hycy stepped in to avert from Peety the offended
pride of the patroness.
"I hope, Peety," he said, "that you are fully sensible of the honor Mrs.
Burke does you and your daughter by taking the girl under her protection
and patronage?"
"I am, God knows."
"And of the advantage it is to get her near so respectable a woman--so
highly respectable a woman?"
"I am, in troth."
"And that it may be the making of your daughter's fortune?"
"It may, indeed, Masther Hycy."
"And that there's no other woman of high respectability in the parish
capable of elevating her to the true principles of double and simple
proportion?"
"No, in throth, sir, I don't think there is."
"Nor that can teach her the newest theories in dogmatic theology and
metaphysics, together with the whole system of Algebraic Equations if
the girl should require them?"
"Divil another woman in the barony can match her at them by all
accounts," replied Peety, catching the earnest enthusiasm of Hycy's
manner.
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