"My children!" said the man. "Where are my children?"

She pointed towards the house of her neighbour, Mrs. Fitzpatrick.
"With a neighbour woman," she said, and turned herself toward him
again with head bowed down.

"And yours?" he hissed.

She shuddered violently.

"Speak," he said in a voice low, calm and terrible. "Do you wish me
to kill you where you stand?"

"Yes," she said, throwing her shawl over her face, "kill me!
Kill me now! It will be good to die!"

With a curse, his hand went to his side. He stood looking at her
quietly for a few moments as if deliberating.

"No," he said at length, "it is not worth while. You are no wife
of mine. Do you hear?"

She gave no sign.

"You are Rosenblatt's swine. Let him use you."

Another shudder shook her.

"Oh, my lord!" she moaned, "kill me. Let me die!"