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The Cure's hand was on the arm of the first wife and the Avocat's upon the arm of the second. The two women were glaring eye to eye, having just finished as fine a torrent of abuse of each other and of Kilquhanity as can be imagined. Kilquhanity himself, with the sorrow of death upon him, though he knew it not, had listened to the brawl, his chickens come home to roost at last. The first Mrs.
"Because the woman loved him he repented," said Dubarre again with a half-cynical gentleness as he placed the crucifix on the dead man's breast. The man who died at Alma had a Kilkenny brogue that you could not cut with a knife, but he was called Kilquhanity, a name as Scotch as McGregor. Kilquhanity was a retired soldier, on pension, and Pontiac was a place of peace and poverty.
Let him go in peace let him go in peace! If I hear one word more," he added sternly, "I will turn you both out of the house into the night. I will have the man die in peace." Opening the door of the bedroom, the Cure went in and shut the door, bolting it quietly behind him. The Little Chemist sat by the bedside, and Kilquhanity lay as still as a babe upon the bed.
When Kilquhanity first came with his wife, it was without introductions from anywhere unlike everybody else in Pontiac, whose family history could be instantly reduced to an exact record by the Cure.
'Kilquhanity, says he, 'it was tin ye killed; but aw, b'ys, the Sergeant-Major was an awful liar. If he could be doin' annybody anny good by lyin', shure he would be lyin' all the time. "But it's little I know how many I killed, for I was killed meself that day.
Kilquhanity had sworn, with an oath that took no account of the Cure's presence, that not a stick nor a stone nor a rag nor a penny should that Irish slattern have of Matthew Kilquhanity's! The Cure and the Avocat had quieted them at last, and the Cure spoke sternly now to both women. "In the presence of death," said he, "have done with your sinful clatter. Stop quarrelling over a dying man.
You pay his pension next time you'll pay it to me. I'll teach him to leave me and my kid and go off with an Irish cook!" The Avocat looked her steadily in the eyes, and then delivered the strongest blow that was possible from the opposite side of the case. "Madame," said he, "Madame, I regret to inform you that Matthew Kilquhanity is dying."
But Sergeant-Major Kilpatrick a bit of a liar was the Sergeant-Major says he: 'It was tin ye killed, Kilquhanity. He says that to me the noight that I left the rigimint for ever, and all the b'ys shtandin' round and liftin' lasses an' saying, 'Kilquhanity! Kilquhanity! Kilquhanity! as if it was sugar and honey in their mouths. Aw, the sound of it!
At that moment the front door of the house opened, and presently a shrill voice came through the door: "Shmokin', shmokin', are ye, Kilquhanity? As soon as me back's turned, it's playin' the fool " She stopped short, seeing the Avocat. "Beggin' yer pardon, Misther Garon," she said, "I thought it was only Kilquhanity here, an' he wid no more sense than a babby."
His eyes were half closed, for the Little Chemist had given him an opiate to quiet the terrible pain. The Cure saw that the end was near. He touched Kilquhanity's arm: "My son," said he, "look up. You have sinned; you must confess your sins, and repent." Kilquhanity looked up at him with dazed but half smiling eyes. "Are they gone? Are the women gone?" The Cure nodded his head.
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