10
	A typical Irishwoman.
ing house is decreasing in the number of its
inmates, the Ham took herself off yesterday;
regretted by nobody, unless perhaps by little
Mrs. Geary.       They used to kiss when they met,
and do a good deal of the desperately affection-
ate, when only acquainted a week or so; but I
think the business has cooled off considerably, of
late, as I predicted to Lizzy Woodward; who
charitably pronounced them �all Irish together,�
and declared it made her sick to see such hypo-
crisy!    I do think that the Ham was the biggest
hypocrite, even for a low Irishwoman, that I 
ever encountered.     She grinned and simpered
and smiled, and appeared so abominably ami-
able that you wanted to throw things at her.
She professed exaggerated regard for people,
praised them to their faces, humiliated her-
self ostentatiously, and possessed, in diabolic
perfection, that essentially Irish trait of ma-
king an almost instantaneous transition from
cringing and carneying to hatred and abuse.
Like most low women, she considered herself
a lady.     She disliked and dreaded me, I 
think, in equal proportion; inasmuch as I
used to treat her to habitual chaff, telling
her that she was too good to live, &c., for
which she avenged herself by abusing me, in