Life went on pretty
much as before in the shop; the children paused to ask how Mr.
Tony was, and even hushed the jingles on their bell hoops as they
passed the door. Red-headed Jimmie, Mrs. Murphy's nephew, did
the hard jobs, such as splitting wood and lifting coal from the
bin; and in the intervals between tending the fallen giant and
waiting on the customers, Tony's wife sat in her accustomed
chair, knitting fiercely, with an inscrutable smile about her
purple compressed mouth.
Then John came, introducing himself, serpent-wise, into the Eden
of her bosom.
John was Tony's brother, huge and bluff too, but fair and blond,
with the beauty of Northern Italy. With the same lack of race
pride which Tony had displayed in selecting his German spouse,
John had taken unto himself Betty, a daughter of Erin,
aggressive, powerful, and cross-eyed. He turned up now, having
heard of this illness, and assumed an air of remarkable authority
at once.
A hunted look stole into the dull eyes, and after John had
departed with blustering directions as to Tony's welfare, she
crept to his bedside timidly.
"Tony," she said,--"Tony, you are very sick."
An inarticulate growl was the only response.
"Tony, you ought to see the priest; you mustn't go any longer
without taking the sacrament."
The growl deepened into words.
"Don't want any priest; you 're always after some snivelling old
woman's fuss.
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