it a strange voice was heard at the door by one of the instincts of their sex they hastily hid the picture in the cloth though there was no need and the next moment in came casting his eyes around a man that had not entered the house this ten years � van the two were so taken by surprise that they merely stared at him and at one another and said the i iu a tone so the and the hearth ai that felt compelled to answer it yes own the last time i came here was not on a friendly errand men love their own interest � � li and mine were contrary well let this visit the last to day i come on your business and none of mine and her daughter exchanged a swift glance of contemptuous incredulity they knew the man better than he thought it is about your son ay i ay i you want him to work for the town all for nothing he told us i come on no such errand it is to let you know he has fallen into bad hands now heaven and the saints forbid i man torture not a mother i speak out and quickly speak ere you have time to coin falsehood we know thee turned pale at this and spite mingled with the other motives that brought him here thus it is then said he grinding his teeth and speaking very fast your son is more like to be father of a family than a priest he is for ever with t peter s red haired girl and loves her like a cow her calf mother and daughter both burst out laughing stared at them what you knew it carry this tale to those who know not my son women are to him other women but this one is the apple of his eye to him or will be if you part them not and soon come dame make me not waste time and friendly counsel my servant has seen them together a score of times handed and reading babies in one another s eyes like � you know dame � you have been young too girl i am ill at ease yes i have been y and know how blind the young and foolish are my heart i he has turned me sick in a moment if it should be true nay nay i cried eagerly might love a young woman all men do i can t find what they see in them to love so but if he did he would let us know he would not deceive us you wicked man i no dear mother look not so i is too good to love a creature of earth his love is for our lady and the saints ah i i will show you the picture � there if his heart was earthly could he paint the queen of heaven like that � look i look and she held the picture out triumphantly and more radiant and beautiful in this moment of enthusiasm than ever dead picture was or will b� overpowered the with her eloquence and her feminine proof of s purity his eyes and mouth opened and remained open in which state they kept turning face and all as if on a from the picture to the women and from the women to the picture why it is herself he gasped isn t it v cried and her hostility was softened you admire it i forgive you for fi u � am i in a mad house said van thoroughly puzzled you show me a picture of the girl and you say he painted it and that is a proof he cannot love her why they all paint their painters do a picture of the girl exclaimed shocked this is no girl this is our blessed lady no no it is margaret oh blind it is the queen of heaven no only of village profane man i behold her crown v silly child look at her red hair i would the virgin be seen in red hair she who had the pick of all the colours ten thousand years before the world began at this moment an anxious face was round the edge of the open door it was their neighbour peter what is to do said he in a cautious whisper � we can hear you all across the street what on earth is to do neighbour what is to do why here is the our stop i cried van peter is come in the nick of time he knows father and daughter both they cast their on him what is she a witch too else the egg takes not after the bird why is her ther called the i tell you they this very peter here they cast on him and cured him of the now peter look and tell me who is that and you be silent women for a moment if you can who is it peter well to be sure i said peter in reply and his eye seemed � by the picture who is it repeated peter smiled why you know as well as i do j but what have they put a crown on her for i never saw her in a crown for my part man alive i can t you open your great jaws and just speak a s name plain out to oblige three people i d do a great deal more to oblige one of you than that if it isn t as natural as curse the man i he won t he won t � curse him i why what have i done now oh sir said little for pity s sake tell us are these the features of a living woman of � of � margaret a mirror is not truer my little maid but is it she 