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widened, and her full pale lips twitched. "Have ye any
money by ye, Joe?" she asked.
"About a hundred and eighty pounds. I did a bit
at the fowl-dealing in the summer," he added in
explanation.
The older woman rose abruptly. "Joe, I’m going
to put another hundred and eighty to it, and set the
both of ye up in a shop. What d'ye say?"
Joe stared up at her, his mouth loosened in
astonishment. "A shop? But what kind o' a shop, Mrs
Echlin - and where?"
Sarah’s eyes closed in a cold lingering smile. "A
grocer's shop. I was thinking there might be room in
the townlands for two. Maybe another one about the top
o’ Knocknadreemally in what used to be Sampson's old
cottage?"
Fox a moment the dying loyalty to his father
flickered up in the boy. But the hard quizzical eyes
of the women standing at the table demanded an answer.
He nodded silently in agreement.'
