Willy Burke, or, The Irish orphan in America - Digital Repository ...

74 WILLY BURKE; OR,
she had quitted the room, she heard Father Fitzherbert
tell Mrs. Burke that Willy had called to apprise him of
her having recovered her senses, as otherwise he might
not have come so soon.
" Ay, its jist like him", said the mother in a tone of
deep feeling; "its himself that was always thoughtful,
an' I hope God '11 give him grace to watch over his sisters.
If your reverence was talkin' to Father Maloney— God's
blessin' be with him !—he 'd tell you that my Willy had
something good in him from his infancy ; an' the last
time he seen him—that was the night before we left home,
when the priest was goin' away—after givin' us all his
blessin', didn't Willy, an' him only a little fellow at the
time, run after him to the door till he blessed him over
again ?"
An involuntary smile curled the lip of Mrs. Watkins
as she overheard this simple effusion ; and as Peter closed
the door behind them, she looked into his face with a
strange expression, half ironical, half comic, as though
she would have said— " Can you be influenced by such
silly notions as these? What a foolish woman your
mother is !" And Peter blushed to the very temples,
though he said nothing, but silently placed a chair for
the lady in the chimney-corner. Mrs. O'Grady had gone
down stairs for a few minutes after Willy and the little
girls, so that they were now left together.
During the short time that the room door was closed,
Mrs. Watkins tried every art of her persuasion to induce
Peter to go back with her, representing to him that there
was no apparent danger of his mother's death— at least
that night, and he could return next day as early as he
chose. " And what good will it do either her or you,