"If it does hurt or harm
to you or yours, or anything but good, may what is hanging over me be
fulfilled!" and she extended a thin, but, considering her years,
not ungraceful arm, in the act of holding out the bottle to her kind
entertainer.
"For the sake of all that's good and gracious take it without
scruple--it is not hurtful, a child might drink every drop that's in it.
Oh, for the sake of all you love, and of all that love you, take it!"
and as she urged her, the tears streamed down her cheeks.
"No, no," replied Mrs. Sullivan, "it'll never cross my lips; not if it
made me as rich as ould Hendherson, that airs his guineas in the sun,
for fraid they'd get light by lyin' past."
"I entreat you to take it?" said the strange woman.
"Never, never!--once for all--I say, I won't; so spare your breath."
The firmness of the good housewife was not, in fact to be shaken; so,
after exhausting all the motives and arguments with which she could urge
the accomplishments of her design, the strange woman, having again put
the bottle into her bosom, prepared to depart.
She had now once more become calm, and resumed her seat with the languid
air of one who has suffered much exhaustion and excitement. She put
her hand upon her forehead for a few moments, as if collecting her
faculties, or endeavoring to remember the purport of their previous
conversation.
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