The Man in Possession — page 63: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

58 THE MAN IN POSSESSION. ‘¢Wasn’t I after telling ye I'd bought the potheen last night, and ‘tis there in the sideboard now, for fear . o temptation.” ‘¢Wouldn’t it be better to take 1t downstairs, and make your punch yourselves?” ‘‘Now, Miss Kate,” said Biddy, reproachfully, ‘‘would ye be denyin’ us the pleasure and honour 0’ your company, and on this night, too? Shure if the master was down, hed be tellin’ ye different. Well do I mind the time when he'd have ivery mother’s child o' us up in the big dining-room at Ballyvughan, and himself ladlin’ out the punch-bowl, and the ladies and gintlemen laughin’ and shoutin’,, and tell- ing stories—and the ructions afterwards! Ah, those were the good ould days, Miss Kate, and no mistake.” ‘They left bad enough results,” said Kate, rue- fully. ‘‘Arrah, whist now, the luck is bound to turn. Didn’t I pick up a horseshoe thrown down that blessed minnit just at our very door, and only to- night didn't a black cat come and sit itself down on the windy-sill beyant, and there the craythur’s in the kitchen now, and as at home as any Christian. Take my word for it, Miss Kate, dear, something's in store for ye. Maybe the rich husband we’ve talked about so often. Ah, but ‘tis kapin’ ye I am, and you not ating your pudding at all. Will I be saying ye liked the sauce? ” ‘It is delicious. Did he really make it?” ‘‘That I'll swear he did, wid the beautiful, nate, light hands o’ him. I’m thinkin’, Miss Kate, ’tis just as well there’s no maids in the kitchen, for, what COMicloe (Sri C(O)