midnight
` She 's a blessed child , Mr. Fitzgerald knows that same : ' says Mrs. McCarty , turning down the rags and revealing the wasted features of her youngest girl , a child eleven years old , sinking in death . ` God knows she 'll be better in heaven , and herself wo n't be long out of it , ' Mrs. McCarty twice repeated , maintaining a singular indifference to the hand of death , already upon the child . The gentleman left some money to buy candles for poor English , and with Mr. Fitzgerald took himself away . `` Near midnight , the tall black figure of solemn-faced Father Flaherty stalked in . He was not pleased with the McCartys , but went to the side of the dying child , fondled her little wasted hand in his own , and whispered a prayer for her soul . Never shall I forget how innocently she looked in his face while he parted the little ringlets that curled over her brow , and told her she would soon have a better home in a better world . Then he turned to poor English , and the cross , and the candles , and the pictures , and the living faces that gave such a ghastliness to the picture .