"You can't plaster me, Tom Moore," she declared, loudly.
Buster and Lord Castlereagh retired to a safe distance and watched proceedings with eager eyes.
"Plaster you?" repeated Moore, meditatively, then suddenly laying hands upon her, he twirled the old lady gently around. "Why should I plaster you when nature has covered your laths so nicely?"
"Don't touch me, you young divil," Mrs. Malone ejaculated. "How dare you take such liberties?"
"Mine is only a friendly interest," protested Moore.
"Who said you were wanting in impudence?" demanded Moore. "Tell me the wretch's name, and I 'll attend to his business."
"Nivir mind," replied the landlady, picking up the mate to the boot she had hurled at Buster. "It's high time you had new boots. I 'll have no tramps or ragbags lodging here."
"Mrs. Malone," said Moore, cheerfully, "I quite agree with you. I am pleased to say I shall have a new pair to-day."
"You will, will you?" retorted the old woman. "We hear ducks."
"I don't hear either ducks or geese. Do you, Buster?"
"Hi 'ears Mrs. Malone, sir," replied the lad, stepping behind the bulldog for safety's sake.
"The mistake is natural," answered Moore. "You were saying--?"
"There is not a shoemaker in London who would trust you, Tom Moore, nor any other tradesman," said Mrs. Malone, on whom the foregoing piece of impudence was quite thrown away.
"Nevertheless, I 'll bet you the back rent--the all the way back rent, Mrs. Malone--I have a grand new pair to-day," declared Moore, defiantly. "Am I right, Buster?"
"Yessir, that we will," asserted that staunch ally.
"Niver mind thot," replied the landlady, extending her palm. "Misther Moore, I 'll thank you for the rint."
Moore took her hand and pressed it warmly.
"No thanks are necessary," he said briskly, "since I have n't it."
The old woman snatched her fingers away with a vigor that nearly upset her lodger.
"I sincerely hope so, Mrs. Malone, though how you 'll get it I can't see."
"You must raise it, Misther Moore, or I 'll have to have me attic."
"Ah, Mrs. Malone, surely such a face never went with any but a kind heart," he said gently.
"Thot 'll do you, young sir," replied the landlady, quite unimpressed.
"Ah!" continued the poet, with a sigh. "You are not true Irish, Mrs. Malone."