"He did," said he; "and what is still more fearful, it's said there was
a black man along wid her. They say that Lanty seen them both, and that
the black man had his arm about the white woman's waist, and was kissin'
her at full trot."
The cook crossed herself, and the whole kitchen turned up its eyes at
this diabolical piece of courtship.
"Musha, the Lord be about us in the manetime; but bad luck to the ould
boy, (a black man is always considered the devil, or the ould boy,
as they call him,) wasn't it a daisant taste he had, to go to kiss a
ghost?"
"Why," replied Barney with a grin, "I suppose the ould chap is hard set
on that point; who the devil else would kiss him, barrin' some she ghost
or other? Some luckless ould maid, I'll go bail, that gather a beard
while she was here, and the devil now is kissin' it off to get seein'
what kind of a face she has. Well, all I can say," he proceeded, "is,
that I wish him luck of his employment, for in troth it's an honorable
one and he has a right to be proud of it."
"Well, well," said the housemaid, "it's a wondher how any one can walk
by themselves at night; wasn't it near the well at the foot of the long
hill that goes up to where the Davorens live that they were seen?"
"It was," replied Barney; "at laste they say so.
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