While the beer was being brought, a solemn silence ensued, and a less comfortable party could not easily be imagined.
When the interval had been so far prolonged that Kearney himself saw the necessity to do something, he placed his napkin on the table, leaned forward with a half-motion of rising, and, addressing Miss Betty, said, ‘Shall we adjourn to the drawing-room and take our coffee?’
‘I’d rather stay where I am, Mathew Kearney, and have that glass of port you offered me a while ago, for the beer was flat. Not that I’ll detain the young people, nor keep yourself away from them very long.’
When the two girls withdrew, Nina’s look of insolent triumph at Kate betrayed the tone she was soon to take in treating of the old lady’s good manners.
‘You had a very sorry dinner, Miss Betty, but I can promise you an honest glass of wine,’ said Kearney, filling her glass.
‘It’s very nice,’ said she, sipping it, ‘though, maybe, like myself, it’s just a trifle too old.’
‘A good fault, Miss Betty, a good fault.’
‘For the wine, perhaps,’ said she dryly, ‘but maybe it would taste better if I had not bought it so dearly.’
‘I was about to say that I have forfeited that young lady’s esteem by the way I obtained it. She’ll never forgive me, instead of retiring for my coffee, sitting here like a man--and a man of that old hard-drinking school, Mathew, that has brought all the ruin on Ireland.’
‘Here’s to their memory, anyway,’ said Kearney, drinking off his glass.
‘I’ll drink no toasts nor sentiments, Mathew Kearney, and there’s no artifice or roguery will make me forget I’m a woman and an O’Shea.’
‘Faix, you’ll not catch me forgetting either,’ said Mathew, with a droll twinkle of his eye, which it was just as fortunate escaped her notice.
‘I doubted for a long time, Mathew Kearney, whether I’d come over myself, or whether I ‘d write you a letter; not that I’m good at writing, but, somehow, one can put their ideas more clear, and say things in a way that will fix them more in the mind; but at last I determined I’d come, though it’s more than likely it’s the last time Kilgobbin will see me here.’
‘I sincerely trust you are mistaken, so far.’
‘Well, Mathew, I’m not often mistaken! The woman that has managed an estate for more than forty years, been her own land-steward and her own law-agent, doesn’t make a great many blunders; and, as I said before, if Mathew has no friend to tell him the truth among the men of his acquaintance, it’s well that there is a woman to the fore, who has courage and good sense to go up and do it.’