to care for herself and her children, a stranger in a strange land."

"Indade, it's not fer me to be runnin' down the counthry,"
exclaimed Mrs. Fitzpatrick. "Sure, it's a good land, an' a foine
counthry it is to make a livin' in," she continued with a glow of
enthusiasm, "an' it's mesilf that knows it."

"Oh, the country is all right," said Mr. Staunton impatiently;
"but did not this man abandon his wife?"

"An' if he's the man ye think he is wudn't she be the better
quit av him?"

The lawyer had reached the limit of his patience.

"Well, well, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, we will leave the wife alone.
But what of his treatment of the children?"

"The childer?" exclaimed Mrs. Fitzpatrick,--"the childer, is it?
Man dear, but he's the thrue gintleman an' the tinder-hearted
father fer his childer, an' so he is."

"Oh, indeed, Mrs. Fitzpatrick. I am sure we shall all be delighted
to hear this. But you certainly have strange views of a father's
duty toward his children. Now will you tell the court upon what
ground you would extol his parental virtues?"

"Faix, it's niver a word I've said about his parental virtues,
or any other kind o' virtues. I was talkin' about his childer."