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diff --git a/old/14025.txt b/old/14025.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ffe495 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14025.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12069 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Mount Music, by E. Oe. Somerville and Martin +Ross + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Mount Music + +Author: E. Oe. Somerville and Martin Ross + +Release Date: November 11, 2004 [eBook #14025] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOUNT MUSIC*** + + +E-text prepared by Alicia Williams and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +MOUNT MUSIC + +by + +E. OE. SOMERVILLE and MARTIN ROSS + +Authors of _The Real Charlotte_, _Some Experiences of an Irish R.M._, +_All on the Irish Shore_, etc., etc. + +1920 + + + + + + + +By the same Authors + +Some Experiences of An Irish R.M. +Further Experiences of An Irish R.M. +In Mr. Knox's Country +All On The Irish Shore +Some Irish Yesterdays +An Irish Cousin +The Real Charlotte +The Silver Fox +Irish Memories + + + + + +PREFACE + +This book was planned some years ago by Martin Ross and myself. A +few portions of it were written, and it was then put aside for other +work. + +Without her help and inspiration, it would not have been begun, and +could not have been completed. I feel, therefore, that to join her +name with mine on the title-page is my duty, as well as my pleasure. + +E. OE. SOMERVILLE. + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +"Christian, dost them see them?" sang an elder brother, small enough +to be brutal, large enough to hurt, while he twisted Christian's arm +as though it were indeed the rope that it so much resembled. + +"I won't say I saw them, because I didn't!" replied Christian, who had +ceased to struggle, but was as far as ever from submission; "but if I +had, you might twist my arm till it was like an old pig's tail and I +wouldn't give in!" + +Possibly John realised the truth of this defiance. He administered a +final thump on what he believed to be Christian's biceps, and released +her. + +"Pretty rotten to spoil the game, and then tell lies," he said, with +severity. + +"I don't tell lies," said Christian, flitting like a gnat to the open +window of the schoolroom. "You sang the wrong verse! It ought to have +been '_hear_ them,' and I _do_!" + +Having thus secured the last word, Miss Christian Talbot-Lowry, aged +nine in years, and ninety in spirit, sprang upon the window-sill, +leapt lightly into a flower-bed, and betook herself to the resort most +favoured by her, the kennels of her father's hounds. + +What person is there who, having attained to such maturity as is +required for legible record, shall presume to reconstruct, either from +memory or from observation, the mind of a child? Certain mental +attitudes may be recalled, certain actions predicated in certain +circumstances, but the stream of the mind, with its wayward currents, +its secret eddies, flows underground, and its course can only be +guessed at by tokens of speech and of action, that are like the +rushes, and the yellow king-cups, and the emerald of the grass, that +show where hidden waters run. Nothing more presumptuous than the +gathering of a few of these tokens will here be attempted, and of +these, only such as may help to explain the time when these children, +emerging from childhood, began to play their parts in the scene +destined to be theirs. + +This history opens at a moment for Christian and her brethren when, +possibly for the last time in their several careers, they asked +nothing more of life. This was the beginning of the summer holidays; +the sky was unclouded by a governess, the sunny air untainted by the +whiff of a thought of a return to school. Anything might happen in +seven weeks. The end of the world, for instance, might mercifully +intervene, and, as this was Ireland, there was always a hope of a +"rising," in which case it would be the boys' pleasing duty to stay at +home and fight. + +"Well, and Judith and I would fight, too," Christian would say, +thinking darkly of the Indian knife that she had stolen from the +smoking-room, for use in emergencies. She varied in her arrangements +as to the emergency. Sometimes the foe was to be the Land Leaguers, +who were much in the foreground at this time; sometimes she decided +upon the English oppressors of a down-trodden Ireland, to whose +slaughter, on the whole, her fancy most inclined. But whatever the +occasion, she was quite determined she was not going to be outdone by +the boys. + +At nine years old, Christian was a little rag of a girl; a rag, but +imbued with the spirit of the rag that is nailed to the mast, and +flaunts, unconquered, until it is shot away. She had a small head, +round and brown as a hazel-nut, and a thick mop of fine, bright hair, +rebellious like herself, of the sort that goes with an ardent +personality, waved and curled over her little poll, and generally +ended the day in a tangle only less intricate than can be achieved by +a skein of silk. Of her small oval face, people were accustomed to say +it was all eyes, an unoriginal summarising, but one that forced itself +inevitably upon those who met Christian's eyes, clear and shining, of +the pale brown that the sun knows how to waken in a shallow pool in a +hill-stream, set in a dark fringe of lashes that were like the rushes +round the pool. Before she could speak, it was told of her eyes that +they would quietly follow some visitor, invisible to others, but +obvious to her. Occasionally, after the mysterious power of +speech--that is almost as mysterious as the power of reading--had come +to her, she had scared the nursery by broken conversation with +viewless confederates, defined by the nursery-maid as "quare turns +that'd take her, the Lord save us!" and by her mother, as "something +that she will outgrow, and the less said about it the better, +darlings. Remember, she is the youngest, and you must all be very wise +and kind--" (a formula that took no heed of punctuation, and was +practically invariable). + +But as Christian grew older the confederates withdrew, either that, or +the protecting shell of reserve that guards the growth of +individuality, interposed, and her dealings with things unseen ceased +to attract the attention of her elders. It was John, her senior by two +years, who preserved an interest, of an inquisitorial sort, in what he +had decided to call the Troops of Midian. There was a sacerdotal turn +about John. He had early decided upon the Church as his vocation, and +only hesitated between the roles of Primate of Ireland and Pope of +Rome. He had something of the poet and enthusiast about him, and +something also of the bully, and it was quite possible that he might +do creditably in either position, but at this stage of his development +his ecclesiastical proclivities chiefly displayed themselves in a +dramatic study, founded upon that well-known Lenten hymn that puts a +succession of searching enquiries, of a personal character, to a +typical Christian. A missionary lecture on West Africa had supplied +some useful hints as to the treatment of witches, and Christian's +name, and the occult powers with which she was credited, had indicated +her as heroine of the piece. + +On this particular afternoon the game had begun prosperously, with +Christian as the Witch of Endor, and John as a blend of the Prophet +Samuel and the Head Inquisitor of Spain. A smouldering saucer of +sulphur, purloined by the witch herself from the kennels +medicine-cupboard, gave a stimulating reality to the scene, even +though it had driven the fox terriers, who habitually acted as the +Witch's cats, to abandon their parts, and to hurry, sneezing and +coughing indignantly, to the kitchen. The twins, Jimmy and Georgy, +however, obligingly took their parts, and all was going according to +ritual, when one of the sudden and annoying attacks of rebellion to +which she was subject, came upon the Witch of Endor. The orthodox +conclusion involved a penitential march through the kitchen regions, +the Witch swathed in a sheet, and carrying lighted candles, while she +was ceremonially flagellated by the Prophet with one of his father's +hunting crops. This crowning moment was approaching, Christian had but +to reply suitably to the intimidating riddles of the hymn, and the +final act would open in all its solemnity. For, as has been said, the +spirit of revolt whispered to her, and ingeniously persuaded her that +the required recantation committed her to a falsehood. + +As she told John, when the formal inquisition had passed through acrid +dispute to torture, she didn't tell lies. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +In the days when Christian Talbot-Lowry was a little girl, that is to +say between the eighties and nineties of the nineteenth century, the +class known as Landed Gentry was still pre-eminent in Ireland. Tenants +and tradesmen bowed down before them, with love sometimes, sometimes +with hatred, never with indifference. The newspapers of their +districts recorded their enterprises in marriage, in birth, in death, +copiously, and with a servile rapture of detail that, though it is not +yet entirely withheld from their survivors, is now bestowed with equal +unction on those who, in many instances, have taken their places, +geographically, if not their place, socially, in Irish every-day +existence. There is little doubt but that after the monsters of the +Primal Periods had been practically extinguished, a stray reptile, +here and there, escaped the general doom, and, as Mr. Yeats says of +his lug-worm, may have-sung with "its grey and muddy mouth" of how +"somewhere to North or West or South, there dwelt a gay, exulting, +gentle race" of Plesiosauridae, or Pterodactyli. Even thus may this +record be regarded; as partial, perhaps, but as founded on the facts +of a not wholly to be condemned past. + +Christian's father, Richard Talbot-Lowry, was a good-looking, +long-legged, long-moustached Major, who, conforming beautifully to +type, was a soldier, sportsman, and loyalist, as had been his +ancestors before him. He had fought in the Mutiny as a lad of +nineteen, and had been wounded in the thigh in a cavalry charge in a +subsequent fight on the Afghan Frontier. Dick, like Horatius, "halted +upon one knee" for the rest of his life, but since the injury gave him +no trouble in the saddle, and did not affect the sit of his trousers, +he did not resent it, and possibly enjoyed its occasional exposition +to an enquirer. When his father died, he left the Army, and, still +true to the family traditions, proceeded to "settle down" at Mount +Music, and to take into his own hands the management of the property. + +Of the Talbot-Lowrys it may be truly said that the lot had fallen to +them in a fair ground. Their ancestor, the Gentleman Adventurer of +Queen Elizabeth's time, had had the eye for the country that, in a +slightly different sense, had descended to his present representative. +Mount Music House stood about midway of a long valley, on a level +plateau of the hill from which it took its name, Cnocan an Ceoil +Sidhe, which means the Hill of Fairy Music, and may, approximately, be +pronounced "Knockawn an K'yole Shee." The hill melted downwards--no +other word can express the velvet softness of those mild, grassy +slopes--to the shore of the River Broadwater, a slow and lordly +stream, that moved mightily down the wide valley, became merged for a +space in Lough Kieraun, and thence flowed onwards, broad and brimming, +bearded with rushes, passing like a king, cloaked in the splendours of +the sunset, to its suicide in the far-away Atlantic. The demesne of +Mount Music lay along its banks; in woods often, more often in +pastures; with boggy places ringed with willows, lovely, in their +seasons, with yellow flags, and meadowsweet, kingcups, ragwort and +loosestrife. Its western boundary was the Ownashee, a mountain stream, +a tributary of the great river, that came storming down from the +hills, and, in times of flood, snatching, like a border-reiver, at +sheep, and pigs, and fowl, tossing its spoils in a tumble of racing +waves into the wide waters of its chieftain. + +Mount Music House was large, intensely solid, practical, sensible, of +that special type of old Irish country-house that is entirely remote +from the character of the men that originated it, and can only be +explained as the expiring cry of the English blood. How many +Anglo-Irish great-great-grandfathers have not raised these monuments +to their English forbears, and then, recognising their obligations to +their Irish mothers' ancestry, have filled them, gloriously, with +horses and hounds, and butts of claret, and hungry poor relations unto +the fourth and fifth generations? That they were a puissant breed, the +history of the Empire, in which they have so staunchly borne their +parts, can tell; their own point of view is fairly accurately summed +up in Curran's verse:-- + + "If sadly thinking, with spirits sinking, + Could more than drinking my cares compose, + A cure for sorrow from sighs I'd borrow, + And hope to-morrow would end my woes. + But as in wailing there's nought availing, + And Death unfailing will strike the blow, + Then for that reason, and for a season, + Let us be merry before we go." + +For Dick Talbot-Lowry, however, and many another like him, the +merriment of his great-grandfather was indifferent compensation for +the fact that his grandfather's and his father's consequent borrowings +were by no means limited to cures for sorrow. Mortgages, charges, +younger children (superfluous and abhorrent to the Heaven-selected +Head of a Family)--all these had driven wedges deep into the Mount +Music estate. But, fortunately, a good-looking, long-legged, ex-Hussar +need not rely exclusively on his patrimony, while matrimony is still +within the sphere of practical politics. When, at close on forty-one +years of age (and looking no more than thirty), Dick left the Army, +his next step was to make what was universally conceded to be "a very +nice marriage," and on the whole, regarding it from the impartial +standpoint of Posterity, the universe may be said to have been +justified in its opinion. + +Lady Isabel Christian was the daughter of an English Earl, and she +brought with her to Mount Music twenty thousand golden sovereigns, +which are very nice things, and Lady Isabel herself was indisputably a +nice thing too. She was tall and fair, and quite pretty enough (as +Dick's female relatives said, non-committally). She was sufficiently +musical to play the organ in church (which is also a statement +provided with an ample margin); she was a docile and devoted wife, a +futile and extravagant house-keeper, kindly and unpunctual, prolific +without resentment; she regarded with mild surprise the large and +strenuous family that rushed past her, as a mountain torrent might +rush past an untidy flower garden, and, after nearly fourteen years of +maternal experience, she had abandoned the search for a point of +contact with their riotous souls, and contented herself with an +indiscriminate affection for their very creditable bodies. Lady Isabel +had--if the saying may be reversed--"_les qualites de ses defauts_," +and these latter could have no environment less critical and more +congenial than that in which it had pleased her mother to place her. +It was right and fitting that the wife of the reigning Talbot-Lowry of +Mount Music, should inevitably lead the way at local dinner-parties; +should, with ladylike inaudibleness, declare that "this Bazaar" or +"Village Hall" was open. It was no more than the duty of Major +Talbot-Lowry (D.L., and J.P.) to humanity, that his race should +multiply and replenish the earth, and Lady Isabel had unrepiningly +obliged humanity to the extent of four sons and two daughters. Major +Dick's interest in the multiplication was, perhaps, more abstract than +hers. + +"Yes," he would say, genially, to an enquiring farmer, "I have four +ploughmen and two dairymaids!" + +Or, to a friend of soldiering days: "Four blackguard boys and only a +brace of the Plentiful Sex!" + +A disproportion for which, by some singular action of the mind, he +took to himself considerable credit. + +Miss Frederica Coppinger (who will presently be introduced) was +accustomed to scandalise Lady Isabel by the assertion that paternal +affection no more existed in men than in tom-cats. An over-statement, +no doubt, but one that was quite free from malice or disapproval. +Undoubtedly, a father should learn to bear the yoke in his youth, and +Dick was old, as fathers go. It cannot be denied that when the Four +Blackguards began to clamour for mounts with the hounds, and the +representatives of the Plentiful Sex outgrew the donkey, Major +Talbot-Lowry had moments of resentment against his offspring, during +which his wife, like a wise doe-rabbit, found it safest to sweep her +children out of sight, and to sit at the mouth of the burrow, having +armed herself with an appealing headache and a better dinner than +usual. The children liked him; not very much, but sufficient for +general decency and the Fifth Commandment. They loved their mother, +but despised her, faintly; (again, not too much for compliance with +the Commandment aforesaid). Finally, it may be said that Major Dick +and Lady Isabel were sincerely attached to one another, and that she +took his part, quite frequently, against the children. + +If, accepting the tom-cat standard of paternity, Dick Talbot-Lowry had +a preference for one kitten more than another, that kitten was, +indisputably, Christian. + +"The little devil knows the hounds better than I do!" he would say to +a brother M.F.H. at the Puppy Show. "Her mother can't keep her out of +the kennels. And the hounds are mad about her. I believe she could +take 'em walking-out single-handed!" + +To which the brother M.F.H. would probably respond with perfidious +warmth: "By Jove!" while, addressing that inner confidant, who always +receives the raciest share of any conversation, he would say that +_he'd_ be jiggered before he'd let any of _his_ children +mess the hounds about with petting and nonsense. + +In justice to Lady Isabel, it should be said that she shared the +visiting M.F.H.'s view of the position, though regarding it from a +different angle. + +"Christian, my dearest child," she said, on the day following the +Puppy Show that had coincided with Christian's eighth birthday, when, +after a long search, she had discovered her youngest daughter, seated, +tailor-wise, in one of the kennels, the centre of a mat of hounds. +"This is not a _not_ a place for you! You don't know _what_ +you may not bring back with you--" + +"If you mean fleas, Mother," replied Christian, firmly, "the hounds +have none, except what _I_ bring them from Yummie." (Yummie was +Lady Isabel's dog, a sickly and much despised spaniel). "The Hounds!" +Christian laughed a little; the laugh that is the flower of the root +of scorn. Then her eyes softened and glowed. "Darlings!" she murmured, +kissing wildly the tan head of the puppy who, but the day before, had +been rest from her charge. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +There are certain persons who are born heralds and genealogists; there +are many more to whom these useful gifts have been denied. With +apologies to both classes, to the one for sins of omission, to the +other in the reverse sense, I find that an excerpt from the +Talbot-Lowry pedigree must be inflicted upon them. + +With all brevity, let it be stated that Dick Talbot-Lowry possessed a +father, General John Richard, and General John Richard had an only +sister, Caroline. Caroline, fair and handsome, like all her family, +was "married off," as was the custom of her period, at the age of +seventeen, to elderly Anthony Coppinger, chiefly for the reason that +he was the owner of Coppinger's Court, with a very comfortable +rent-roll, and a large demesne, that marched, as to its eastern +boundaries, with that of Mount Music, and was, as it happened, divided +from it by no more than the Ownashee, that mountain river of which +mention has been made. It was, therefore, exceedingly advisable that +the existing friendly relations should be cemented, as far as was +practicable, and the fair and handsome Caroline was an obvious and +suitable adhesive. To Anthony and Caroline, two children were born; +Frederica, of whom more hereafter, and Thomas. By those who lay claim +to genealogic skill, it will now be apparent that these were the first +cousins of Dick Talbot-Lowry. Thomas went into the Indian Army, and in +India met and married a very charming young lady, Theresa Quinton, a +member of an ancient Catholic family in the North of England, and an +ardent daughter of her Church. In India, a son was born to them, and +Colonel Tom, who adored his wife, remarking that these things were out +of his line, made no objection to her bringing up the son, St. +Lawrence Anthony, in her own religion, and hoped that the matter would +end there. Mrs. Coppinger, however, remembering St. Paul's injunctions +to believing wives and unbelieving husbands, neither stopped nor +stayed her prayers and exhortations, until, just before the birth of a +second child, she had succeeded in inducing Tom Coppinger--(just "to +please her, and for the sake of a quiet life," as he wrote, +apologetically, to his relations and friends, far away in Ireland) to +join her Communion. She then died, and her baby followed her. Colonel +Tom, a very sad and lonely man, came to England and visited St. +Lawrence Anthony at the school selected for him by his mother; then he +returned to his regiment in India, and was killed, within a year of +his wife's death, in a Frontier expedition. He left Larry in the joint +guardianship of his sister, Frederica, and his first cousin, Dick +Talbot-Lowry, with the request that the former would live with the boy +at Coppinger's Court, and that the latter would look after the +property until the boy came of age and could do so himself; he also +mentioned that he wished his son's education to continue on the lines +laid down by his "beloved wife, Theresa." + +It must, with regret, be stated, that the relatives and friends in +far-away Ireland, instead of admiring "poor Tom's" fidelity to his +wife's wishes, murmured together that it was very unfortunate that +"poor Theresa" had not died when Larry was born, as, in that case, +this "disastrous change of religion" would not have taken place. +Taking into consideration the fact that Larry was to live among his +Irish cousins, it is possible that from the point of view of +expediency, the relations and friends were in some degree justified. + +Ireland, it is almost superfluous to observe, has long since decided +to call herself The Island of Saints, an assertion akin to the +national challenge of trailing the coat-tails, and believers in +hereditary might, perhaps, be justified in assuming a strictly +celibate sainthood. Be that as it may, Irish people have ever been +prone to extremes, and, in spite of the proverb, there are some +extremes that never touch, and chief among them are those that concern +religion. Religion, or rather, difference of religion, is a factor in +every-day Irish life of infinitely more potency than it is, perhaps, +in any other Christian country. The profundity of disagreement is such +that in most books treating of Ireland, that are not deliberately +sectarian, a system of water-tight compartments in such matters is +carefully established. It is, no doubt, possible to write of human +beings who live in Ireland, without mentioning their religious views, +but to do so means a drastic censoring of an integral feature of +nearly all mundane affairs. This it is to live in the Island of +Saints. + +In this humble account of the late Plesiosauridae and their +contemporaries, it is improbable that any saint of any sect will be +introduced; one assurance, at least, may be offered without +reservation. Those differing Paths, that alike have led many wayfarers +to the rest that is promised to the saints, will be treated with an +equal reverence and respect. But no rash undertakings can be given as +touching the wayfarers, or even their leaders, who may chance to +wander through these pages. Neither is any personal responsibility +accepted for the views that any of them may express. One does not +blame the gramophone if the song is flat, or if the reciter drops his +h's. + +After this exhaustive exordium it is tranquillising to return to the +comparative simplicities of the existence of the young Talbot-Lowrys. +Those summer holidays of the year 1894 were made ever memorable for +them by the re-inhabiting of Coppinger's Court. Mount Music was a +lonely place; it lay on the river, about midway between the towns of +Cluhir and Riverstown, either of which meant a five or six mile drive, +and to meet such friends and acquaintances as the neighbourhood +afforded, was, in winter, a matter confined to the hunting-field, and +in summer was restricted, practically, to the incidence of lawn-tennis +parties. Possibly the children of Mount Music, thus thrown upon their +own resources, developed a habit of amusing themselves that was as +advantageous to their caretakers as to their characters. It certainly +enhanced very considerably their interest in the advent of Master St. +Lawrence Coppinger. He became the subject of frequent and often heated +discussions, the opinion most generally held, and stated with a fine +simplicity, being that he would prove to be "a rotter." + +"India," John said, "had the effect of making people effemeral." + +"Effeminate, ass!" corrected Richard, shortly. + +"Anyhow," said a Twin, charitably, "we can knock that out of him!" + +"Anyhow," said Judith, next to Richard in age and authority, "if he +_is_ a rotter, he can go into the Brats' band. You want someone +decent," she added, addressing the Twin, whose remark she felt to have +savoured of presumption. + +This family had, for purposes of combat and of general entertainment, +divided itself into two factions, that fought endlessly among the +woods and shrubberies. A method had been recently introduced by +Richard of utilising the harmless, necessary pocket-handkerchief as a +sling for the projection of gravel, and its instant popularity had +resulted in the denuding of the avenues of ammunition, and in arousing +a great and just fury in the bosom of the laundress. "God knows it +isn't me has all the hankershiffs holed this way!" she pointed out. +"Thim children is the divil outlawed. Thim'd gallop the woods all the +night, like the deer!" + +The assortment of the family had been decided rather on the basis of +dignity, than on that of a desire to equalise the sides, and thus it +befel that Richard, Judith, and John, with the style and title of The +Elder Statesmen, were accustomed to drive before them the junior +faction of The Brats, consisting of the Twins, Christian, and the +dogs, Rinka and Tashpy, with a monotony of triumph that might have +been expected to pall, had not variety been imparted by the invention +of the punishments that were inflicted upon prisoners. There had been +a long and hot July day of notable warfare. The Twins, if small, +were swift and wily; even Christian had justified her adoption by +a stealthy and successful raid upon the opposition gravel heap. A +long and savage series of engagements had ensued, that alternated +between flights, and what Christian, blending recollections of +nursery doctoring with methods of Indian warfare, designated +"stomach-attacks." It was while engaged in one of the latter forms +of assault that Christian was captured, and, being abandoned by her +comrades, was haled by the captors before Richard, the Eldest +Statesmen. A packed Court-martial of enemies speedily found the +prisoner guilty, and the delicious determining of the punishment +absorbed the attention of the Court. John, with a poet's fancy, +suggested that the criminal should be compelled to lick a worm. +Judith, more practical, advocated her being sent to the house to +steal some jam. "I forgot to," she said. + +The Court was held in the Council Chamber, a space between the birches +and hazels on the bank of the Ownashee; a fair and green room, ceiled +with tremulous leaves, encircled and made secret by high bracken, out +of which rose the tarnished-silver stems of the birch trees and the +multitudinous hazel-boughs, and furnished with boulders of limestone, +planted deep in a green fleece of mingled moss and grass. On one side +only was it open to the world, yet on that same side it was most +effectively divided from it, by the swift brown stream, speeding down +to the big river, singing its shallow summer song as it sped. + +Richard, Eldest Statesman, gazed in dark reflection upon the prisoner, +meditating her sentence; the prisoner, young enough to tremble in the +suspense, old enough to enjoy the nerve-tension and the moment of +drama, gazed back at him. Her hair lay in damp rings, and hung in +rats'-tails about her forehead. Her small face, with the silver-clear +skin, stippled here and there with tiny freckles, was faintly flushed, +and moist with the effort of her last great but unavailing run for +freedom; her wide eyes were like brown pools scooped from the brown +flow of the Ownashee. + +"I adjudge," said Richard, in an awful voice, "that the prisoner shall +amass three buckets of the best gravel. The same to be taken from the +shallow by the seventh stepping-stone." + +The prisoner's little brown arm, with a hand thin and brown as a +monkey's, went up; the recognised protest. + +"Not the seventh, most noble Samurai," she said, anxiously; "Won't it +do from the strand?" + +"I have spoken," replied the Eldest Statesman, inflexibly. + +"Then I won't!" exclaimed Christian; "I--I couldn't! The river giddys +me so awfully when I stand still on the stones--" + +"Prisoner!" returned Richard, "once the law is uttered, it can't be +unuttered! Off you go!" + +"Well then, and I _will_ go!" said Christian, with a wriggle so +fierce and sudden that it loosed the grip of her guards. It is even +possible that the ensuing lightning dart for freedom might have +succeeded, but for the unfortunate fidelity of her allies, Rinka and +Tashpy. The one sprang at her brief skirt and caught it, the other got +between her legs. She fell, and was delivered again into the hands of +the enemy. + +Richard was not a bully, but Mrs. Sarah Battle was not more scrupulous +than he in observing the rigour of the game. Christian was manacled +with the belt of her own overall, and was hauled along the golden, but +despised, gravel of the river strand, to the spot whence the +stepping-stones started. + +"I'll do this much for you," said the Eldest Statesman, relaxing a +little, "I'll go first and carry the bucket." + +He dragged Christian on to the first of the big, flat, old +stepping-stones, Judith assisting from the rear, and, with increasing +difficulty, two more stones were achieved. Then they paused for +breath, and a sudden whirlwind of passion came upon the captive. She +began to struggle and dance upon the flat stone, madly endeavouring to +free her hands, while she shrieked to the dastard Twins to come to her +rescue. + +"Cowards! Cowards! I hate you all--" + +"Better let her go," whispered Judith, who knew better than her Chief +what Christian's storms meant. + +Richard hesitated, and, as in a mediaeval romance, at this moment a +champion materialised. + +Not the Twins, lying like leopards along the higher boughs of a +neighbouring alder, deeply enjoying the spectacle, but a boy, smaller +than Richard, who came crashing through the bushes on the Coppinger's +Court side of the Ownashee. Arrived, at the ford, he stayed neither +his pace nor his stride, and before the Eldest Statesman, much +hampered by his prisoner and the bucket, could put up any sort of +defence, the unknown rescuer had sprung across the stepping-stones, +and, catching him by the shoulders, had, by sheer force of speed and +surprise, hurled him into the river. + +Thus did Larry Coppinger, informally but effectively, introduce +himself to his second-cousins, the Talbot-Lowrys. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +A fortnight or so after the moving incidents that have just been +recited, Miss Frederica Coppinger, and her nephew, St. Lawrence of +that ilk, were spending a long and agreeable Sunday afternoon with +their relatives at Mount Music, elders and youngsters being +segregated, after their kind, and to their mutual happiness. + +Major Talbot-Lowry, very well pleased with himself, very tall and +authoritative, was standing, from force of habit, on the rug in front +of the fire-place in the Mount Music drawing-room, and was +cross-examining Miss Coppinger on her proposed arrangements for +herself and her nephew, while he drank his tea in gulps, each +succeeded by burnishing processes, with a brilliant silk bandanna +handkerchief, such as are necessitated by a long and drooping +moustache. + +All good-looking people are aware of their good looks, but the gift of +enjoying them, that had been lavishly bestowed on Dick, is denied to +many; on the other hand, the companion gift, of realising when they +are becoming pleasures of memory, had been withheld from him. Dick was +of the happy temperament that believes in the exclusive immortality of +his own charms, and he was now enjoying his conversation with his +cousin none the less for the discovery that Miss Coppinger, who was +younger than he, had preserved her youth very much less successfully +than he had done. + +The cross-examination had moved on to the subject of Larry's religion, +and the combative fervour of Major Dick's Protestantism might have +edified John Knox. + +"But look here, Frederica," he said, putting down his cup and saucer, +with a crash, on the high mantelpiece, "you don't mean to tell me that +the boy has to go to Mass with the servants--on the cook's lap, I +suppose--on the outside car! Good Heeavens! Poor old Tom! Talk about +turning in his grave! I should think he was going head over heels in +it by this time!" + +This referred to the late Colonel Coppinger, the genuineness of whose +conversion to his wife's Church had never been accepted by Major +Talbot-Lowry. + +"My _dear_ Dick!" said Lady Isabel. + +Miss Coppinger closed her lips tightly with an air of high +self-control. + +"That is a matter of opinion!" she said blandly. "Tom was perfectly +aware of what changing his religion involved, in this country--though +it's probably quite different in India. In any case, the thing is +done, and as I believe it to be my Duty to send Larry to his chapel, +to his chapel he shall go!" + +Unimaginative people, or those of limited vocabulary, affixed to Miss +Coppinger the ancient label: "A typical old maid," and considered that +no further definition was required; and, since her appearance +conformed in some degree with stage traditions, there is something to +be said for them. If labels are to be employed, even the least complex +of human beings would suggest a much-travelled portmanteau, covered +with tags and shreds from hotels and railways. Frederica shall not be +labelled; let it suffice to say that she was tall and thin, and nearer +fifty than forty (which was a far greater age thirty years ago than it +is now), and that she had a sense of fair play that was proof against +her zeal as an Irish Church-woman. It is true that she mentioned what +she regarded as the disaster of Larry's religion in her prayers, but +she did so without heat, leaving the matter, without irreverence, to +the common sense of Larry's Creator, who, she felt must surely +recognise the disadvantages of the position as it stood. + +"I cannot possibly interfere with Larry's religion," pursued Miss +Coppinger, with a defiant eye on her cousin, "and as soon as we are a +little more settled down I shall ask the priest to lunch. Farther than +that I don't feel called upon to go." + +"Draw the line at dinner, eh?" said Major Dick, with large and +humorous tolerance: "_I_ know very little about the feller--he's +newly come to the parish--he mayn't be a bad sort for all I know--I'm +bound to say he's got a black-muzzled look about him, but we might go +farther and fare worse. I should certainly have him to lunch if I were +you. Have a good big joint of roast beef, and don't forget to give him +his whack of whisky!" + +"I never have whisky in the house," said Miss Coppinger repressively. +"Claret, I _could_ give him--?" + +Major Talbot-Lowry looked down at his cousin with the condescending +amusement that he felt to be the meed of female godliness especially +when allied with temperance principles. + +"Well, claret might do for once in a way," he conceded, shaking his +long legs to take the creases out of his trousers, "and you mightn't +find Father Sweeny so anxious to repeat the dose--and that mightn't be +any harm either! I daresay you wouldn't object to that, Frederica! +Well, good-bye, ladies! I'm going down to the kennels--" + +Lady Isabel's and Miss Coppinger's eyes followed him, as he swung, +with that light halt in his leisurely stride, down the long +drawing-room, trolling in the high baritone, that someone had pleased +him by likening to a cavalry trumpet, + + "Oh, Father McCann was a beautiful man, + But a bit of a rogue, a bit of a rogue! + He was full six feet high, he'd a cast in his eye, + And an illigant brogue, an illigant brogue!" + +In both his wife's and his cousin's faces was the same look, the look +that often comes into women's faces when, unperceived, they regard the +sovereign creature. Future generations may not know that look, but in +the faces of these women, born in the earlier half of the nineteenth +century, there was something of awe, and of indulgence, of +apprehension, and of pity. Dick was so powerful, so blundering, so +childlike. Miss Frederica expressed something of their common thought +when she said: + +"Dick seems to forget that he is Larry's guardian as well as I. Also +that Larry is a Roman Catholic, and it is not only useless but +dishonourable to ignore it!" + +It has been said that Lady Isabel had _les qualities de ses defauts_; +in Miss Coppinger's case the words may be restored to their rightful +sequence. She had the inevitable _defauts de ses qualites_. The sense +of duty was as prominent a feature of her soul as a hump on her long +straight back would have been, but toleration was inconspicuous. She +ran straight herself, and though she could forgive deviations on the +part of others, she could not forget them. She was entirely and +implacably Protestant, a typical member of that Church that expects +friendship from its votaries, but leaves their course of action to +their own consciences. It was a very successful example of the malign +humour of Fate that Miss Coppinger's ward should belong to the other +Church, that exacts not only obedience, but passion, and it was a +master-stroke that Frederica's sense of duty should compel her to +enforce her nephew to compliance with its demands. + +"Dear Frederica, Dick will leave all religious things to you, I +know--" warbled Lady Isabel, in her gentle, musical voice, that +suggested something between the tones of a wood pigeon and an ocarina. +"And they couldn't be in better hands!" + +"But my dear Isabel, that is precisely what I complain of! Dick's +solitary suggestion has been that we should send Larry to Winchester, +which is perfectly impracticable! I entirely agree with him, but, +unfortunately, _I_ know that it is our duty to send him to one of +those--" Miss Coppinger hesitated, swallowed several adjectives, and +ended with Christian tameness--"one of those special schools for Roman +Catholics." + +"Well, dear, I daresay it won't make very much difference," consoled +Lady Isabel. "I have always heard that Monkshurst was a charming +school, and dear Larry will be _so_ well off--I don't suppose his +religion will interfere in _any_ way. It seldom does, does it?" + +"Not, I admit, unless he wanted a job in this country!" began Miss +Coppinger grimly, and again remembered that intolerance was not to be +encouraged. "The end of it is that I shall endeavour to do _my +duty_--which is, apparently, to do everything that I most entirely +disapprove of--and that on the day Larry is twenty-one, I shall march +out of Coppinger's Court, and dance a jig, and then he may have the +Pope to stay with him if he likes!" + +While Miss Coppinger was thus belabouring and releasing her conscience +in the drawing-room, quite another matter was engaging the attention +of her ward, and of his entertainers at the school-room tea-table. +This was no less a thing than the dissolving of the existing Bands, +and the formation of a new society, to be known as "The Companions of +Finn." + +Larry Coppinger's entrance, literally at a bound, into the +Talbot-Lowry family group, had landed him, singularly enough, into the +heart of their affection and esteem. He was now the originator of this +revolutionary scheme, and having in him that special magnetic force +that confers leadership, the scheme was being put through. + +"The point is," he said, eagerly, "that when we are split up into two +bands, we can do nothing much, but the lot of us together might--might +make quite a difference." + +"Difference to what?" said Richard, ex-chief of the Elder Statesmen, +unsympathetically. Like his father before him, he disliked change. + +"Well, hold on!" said Larry, quickly, "wait just one minute, and I'll +tell you. I got the notion out of a book I found in the library. I +don't expect I'd have thought of it myself--" Larry's transparent +sky-blue eyes sought Richard's appealingly. "It's--it's only poems, +you know, but it's most frightfully interesting--I brought it with +me--" + +"Oh--poems!" said Richard, without enthusiasm. "Are they long ones?" + +"I don't seem to care so awfully much about poetry," abetted Judith, +late Second-in-command. + +John looked sapient, and said, neutrally, that some poetry wasn't bad. + +The Twins, who were engaged in a silent but bitter struggle for the +corpse of a white rabbit, recently born dead, made no comment. Only +Christian, her small hands clenched together into a brown knot, her +eyes fastened on Larry's flushed face, murmured: + +"Go on, Larry!" + +Larry went on. + +"It's called the Spirit of the Nation," he said. "It's full of +splendid stuff about Ireland, and the beastly way England's treated +her. It sort of--sort of put the notion into my head that we might +start some sort of a Fenian band, and that some day we might--well," +he turned very red, and ended with a rush, "we might be able to strike +a blow for Ireland!" + +"Moy oye!" said Richard, intensifying his favourite invocation in his +surprise, "but what's wrong with Ireland?" + +The position wanted but the touch of opposition. Larry rather well bet +Richard that there was plenty wrong with her! Penal laws! Persecution! +Saxon despots grinding their heels into a down-trodden people! +Revolution! Liberation! Larry had a tongue that was hung loosely in +his head and was a quick servant to his brain. + +"Of course I know we're rather young--well, you're nearly fourteen, +Richard, and I'm thirteen and three months, that's not so awfully +young. Anyway, everything's got to have a beginning--" He glowed +upon his audience of six, his fair hair in a shock, his eyes and his +cheeks in a blaze, and one, at least, of that audience caught fire. + +The Revolutionary or Reformer, who hesitates at becoming a bore, is +unworthy of his high office; and Larry, like most of his class, +required but little encouragement. He produced a large book, old and +shabby, the green and gold of its covers stained and faded, but still +of impressive aspect. + +"There are heaps of them, and they're all jolly good. It's rather hard +to choose--" began the Revolutionary with a shade of nervousness. +Then he again met Christian's eyes, shining and compelling, and took +heart from them. + +"Well, there's 'Fontenoy,' of course that's a ripper--Well, I don't +know what _you'll_ all think, but _I_ think this is a jolly +good one," he said with a renewal of defiance, and began to read, at +first hurriedly, but gathering confidence and excitement as he went +on: + + "Did they dare, did they dare, to slay Owen Roe O'Neill? + Yes, they slew with poison, him they feared to meet with steel. + May God wither up their hearts! May their blood cease to flow! + May they walk in living death, who poisoned Owen Roe! + We thought you would not die--we were sure you would not go, + And leave us in our utmost need to Cromwell's cruel blow-- + Sheep without a shepherd, when the snow shuts out the sky-- + Oh! Why did you leave us, Owen? Why did you die?" + +The Elder Statesmen listened in critical silence, while Larry, not +without stumbles, stormed on through the eight verses of the poem. +When he had finished it, there was a pause. The audience was +impressed, even though they had no intention of admitting the fact. +Christian gave a tremendous sigh. The contest for the defunct rabbit, +that had been arrested, broke out again, fiercely, but with caution. +Then Richard said, dubiously: + +"Well, that's all right, Larry--I meant it's jolly sad, and awfully +good poetry, I'm sure--but how on earth are you going to work a show +out of it? I can't see--" + +"Unless," interrupted Judith, thoughtfully, "unless we sort of acted +it--?" + +John, who loved "dressing up," woke to life; even Richard began to see +daylight. + +"That's not a bad notion, Judy!" he said briskly: "bags I Cromwell! +Larry, you can be Owen what's-his-name." + +Larry came down like a shot bird from the sphere of romance to which +the poem had borne him. + +"I hadn't thought of any scheme," he said, pulling himself together; +"I only wanted to give you a kind of notion of the rotten way +England's always treated Ireland--" + +"But let's!" cried Christian; "let's act the whole book!" + +Truisms are of their essence dull, but they must sometimes be +submitted to, and the truism as to a book's possible influence on the +young and impressionable cannot here be avoided. What it is that +decides if the book is to stamp itself on the plastic mind, or if the +mind is to assert itself and stamp on the book, is a detail that +admits less easily of dogmatism. The Companionage of Finn remained in +being for but two periods of holiday. Before the boys had returned to +school, it had seen its best days; the scheme for an armed invasion of +England had been abandoned, even the more matured project of storming +Dublin Castle was set aside; by the end of the Christmas holidays it +had been formally dissolved. + +It is not easy to understand, it is still harder to explain what it +was in those fierce denunciations and complaints, outcome of that time +of general revolt, the "Roaring Forties" of the nineteenth century, +that made them echo in Larry's heart, nor why the restless, passionate +spirit that inspired them should have remained with him, a perturbing +influence from which he never wholly escaped. His young soul burned +with hatred of England, borrowed from the Bards of "The Nation" +Office; he lay awake at nights, stringing rhymes in emulation of their +shouts of fury, or picturing rebellions, of which he was to be the +leader and hero. Larry's enthusiasms were wont to devour not him only, +but also his friends. It is impossible to escape from the conclusion +that the career of the Companionage of Finn was abbreviated by Larry's +determination to recite to the Companions of the Order, in season and +out of season, the poems by which, during his first Irish summer, he +was possessed. There came a time when he had, as he believed, put away +childish things, that, returning to these venerable trumpet-blasts, he +asked himself, in the arrogance of youth, how these stale metaphors, +these conventional phrases, these decorations as meretricious as stage +jewellry, and metres that cantered along, as he told himself, like +solemn old circus-horses, could have had the power to shake his voice +and fill his eyes with tears, as he spoke them to Christian, who had +so soon become his sole audience. + +The strange thing was, as he acknowledged to himself, that while he +could mock at them as poetry, he could not ignore their power. The +intensity of their hatred, and of their sincerity, made itself felt, +as the light of the sun will shine through the crude commonness of a +vulgar stained-glass window. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +There was one person who viewed the enthusiastic intimacy that had +sprung up between the houses of Coppinger and Talbot-Lowry, with a +disapproval as deep as it was prejudiced. It was a person whose +opinion might, by the thoughtless, be considered unimportant, but in +this the thoughtless would greatly err. Robert Evans was the butler at +Mount Music. He had held that position since the year 1859, from which +statement a brief and unexacting calculation will establish the fact +that he had taken office when his present master was no more than +twenty-one years old and, it being now 1894, he had so continued for +35 years. Possibly a vision of an adoring and devoted retainer may +here present itself. If so, it must be immediately dispelled. In Mr. +Evans' opinion, such devotion and adoration as the case demanded, were +owed to him by the House on which he had for so long a time bestowed +the boon of his presence, and those who were privileged with his +acquaintance had no uncertainty in the matter, since his age, his +length of service, his fidelity, and the difficulties with which he +daily contended, formed the main subjects of his conversation. + +In the palmier days of the Irish gentry there were many households in +which the religion of the servants was a matter of considerable +importance, and those who could afford exclusiveness, were accustomed +to employ only Protestants as indoor servants. This may seem like an +unwarrantable invasion of the inner fortress of another individual, +making his views spiritual responsible for his fortunes temporal. But +in Ireland, in the earlier half of the troubled nineteenth century, +such differentiation was inspired not by bigotry, but by fear. When a +man's foes might be, and often were, those of his own household, that +his servants should be of his own religion was almost his only +safeguard against espionage. There is somewhat to be said on both +sides; it will not be said here, but that there have been times in +Ireland when such precautions were required, cannot be ignored. + +Robert Evans was a survivor of such a period. Time was when he +strutted, autocratic and imperious as a turkey-cock, ruler of a flock +of lesser fowl, all of his own superior creed; brave days when he and +Mrs. Dixon, the housekeeper, herded and headed, respectively, a bevy +of "decent Protestant maids" into Family Prayers every morning, and +packed "the full of two covered cars" off to the Knockceoil Parish +Church on Sundays. Evans rarely went to church, believing that such +disciplines were superfluous for one in a state of grace, but the +glory of the House of Talbot-Lowry demanded a full and rustling pew of +female domestics, while the coachman, and a footman or a groom, were +generally to be relied on to give a masculine stiffening to the party. +With Lady Isabel's _regime_ had come a slackening of moral fibre, +a culpable setting of attainments, or of convenience, above creed, in +the administration of the household. Once had Lady Isabel been +actually overheard by Evans, offering to a friend, in excuse for the +indifferent show made by her household in the parish church, the +offensive explanation that "R.C.'s were so sympathetic, and so easy to +find, while Protestants were not only scarce, but were so proud of +being Protestants, and expected so much admiration"--here she had +perceived the presence of Evans, and had unavailingly begun upon the +weather, but Evans' deep-seated suspicions as to the laxity of the +English Church had been confirmed. + +It is possible that the greatest shock that Evans was capable of +sustaining was administered when he heard of the secession to the +enemy of Colonel Tom Coppinger. Only second to it was the discovery +that Colonel Tom's poisoned offspring was to be received at Mount +Music and admitted to the fellowship of its children. + +"No!" Evans said to Mrs. Dixon, standing on the hearthrug in the +sanctuary of the housekeeper's room, one wet afternoon, shortly after +the Coppinger return: "I see changes here, better and worse, good and +bad, but I didn't think I'd live to see what I seen to-day--the +children of this house consorting with a Papist!" + +"Fie!" said Mrs. Dixon, without conviction. She was fat and +easy-tempered, and though ever anxious to conciliate him whom she +respected and feared as "Mr. Eevans," her powers of dissimulation +often failed at a pinch of this kind. + +Mr. Evans looked at his table-companion with a contempt to which she +had long been resigned. He was a short, thin, bald man, with a sharp +nose curved like a reaping-hook, iron-grey whiskers and hair, and +fierce pale blue eyes. Later on, Christian, in the pride of her first +introduction to Tennyson, had been inspired by his high shoulders and +black tailed coat to entitle him "The many-wintered crow," and the +name was welcomed by her fellows, and registered in the repository of +phrases and nicknames that exists in all well-regulated families. + +"'Fie!'" he repeated after Mrs. Dixon, witheringly. "I declare before +God, Mrs. Dixon, if I was to tell you the Pope o' Rome was coming to +dinner next Sunday, it's all you'd say would be 'Fie!'" + +Mrs. Dixon received this supposition of catastrophe with annoying +calm, and even reverted to Mr. Evans' earlier statement in a manner +that might have bewildered a less experienced disputant than he. + +"Well, indeed, Mr. Eevans," she said, appeasingly, "I'd say he was a +nice child enough, and the very dead spit of the poor Colonel. I dunno +what harm he could do the children at all?" + +The Prophet Samuel could scarcely have regarded Saul, when he offered +those ill-fated apologies relative to King Agag, with a more sinister +disfavour than did Evans view Mrs. Dixon. + +"I'll say one thing to you, Mrs. Dixon," he said, moving to the door +with that laborious shuffle that had inspired one of the hunted and +suffering tribe of his pantry-boys to the ejaculation: "I thank God, +there's more in his boots than what's there room for!"--"and I'll say +it once, and that's enough! As sure as God made little apples, trouble +and disgrace will follow jumpers!" + +Mrs. Dixon, no less than Evans, disapproved of those who changed their +religion, but this denunciation did not seem to her to apply. + +"That poor child's no jumper!" she called after her antagonist; +"'twasn't his fault he was born the way he was!" + +Evans slammed the door. + +Mrs. Dixon dismissed the controversy from her easy mind, looked at the +clock, and laid down her knitting. + +"Miss Christian'll be looking for her birthday cake!" she said to +herself, hoisting her large person from her chair. Even as she did so, +there came a rapping, quick and urgent, at the window. "Look at that +now!" said Mrs. Dixon. "I wouldn't doubt that child to be wanting the +world in her pocket before it was made!" + +"Dixie! Dixie! Open the window! Hurry! I want you!" + +Christian's face, surmounted by a very old hunting-cap, and decorated +with a corked moustache, appeared at the window. + +"The Lord save us, child! What have you done to yourself? And what are +you doing out there in the wet?" answered Mrs. Dixon, reprovingly; +"sure the cake won't be baked for ten minutes yet." + +"I don't want the cake. I only want some biscuits, _please_. +Dixie, and hurry! Amazon's bolted, and Cottingham's asked _me_ to +catch her! If you _had_ a bone, Dixie, she'd simply--" + +Mrs. Dixon was gone. She disapproved exceedingly of Christian's role +as kennel-boy, but as, since Christian's first birthday, she had never +refused her anything, she was not prepared on her tenth to break so +well-established a habit. + +"I dunno in the world why Mr. Cottingham should make a young lady like +you do his business!" she said, putting the requisition bait into +Christian's eager, up-stretched hands, "and if your Mamma could see +you--" + +"Oh, well done, Dixie! What a lovely bone! Oh, thank you most +awfully!" interrupted Christian, snatching at the dainties provided, +and flitting away through the grey veils of the rain, a preposterous +little figure, clad in a ragged kennel-coat, that had been long since +discarded by the huntsman, a pair of couples slung round her neck, and +a crop in her hand. + +It was a chilly, wet August afternoon. It had rained for the past +three days, and was, by all appearances, prepared to continue to do so +for three more. Christian ran across the fields to the kennels, +regardless of wet overhead or underfoot, and oblivious of the corked +moustache, which ran too, almost as fast as she did. She had made a +_detour_ to avoid the schoolroom windows. Her birthday party was +toward, and charades (accounting for her moustache) were in full +swing. But the message from Cottingham, secretly conveyed together +with the couples, by the pantry boy, transcended in importance all +other human affairs. She had slipped away from her fellows, and having +endured the hunting cap and the kennel coat, as the wear suitable to +such an occasion, she had not lost a minute in coming to the horn. + +Cottingham, Major Talbot-Lowry's First Whip and kennel huntsman, a +single-souled little Devonshire man, whose dyed hair was the solitary +indication of the age it was intended to conceal, awaited her outside +the kennels. + +"Well, Missie, I knew you'd come," he said, approvingly. "It's Amazon +that's away--that little badger-pye bitch we got last week--I 'ad to +give 'er a bit of a 'iding--she tried to run a sheep when we was +walkin' out last evening--she's a revengeful sort, she is, and very +artful, and when we gets near kennels, her took an' bolted past Jimmy +over the 'ill, an' I says to Jimmy, 'Why you fool' I says--" + +The tale continued at length, and with those repetitions and +recapitulations peculiar to the simple, but by no means short annals +of the poor, and especially of the English poor. Yet, Christian, the +impatient, the ardent, stood and listened with respectful and absorbed +interest. Cottingham might be elderly, egotistic, long-winded, but at +this period of her career, Christian's hot heart beat throb for throb +with his, and the thought, as he said, of "that pore little bitch +stoppin' out, and maybe spoilt, so that there'd be nothin' for us but +to shoot her, through learnin' to run sheep," had precisely the same +horror for her as for him. + +"I couldn't, so to speak, lay me 'and on 'er now; her wouldn't let me +go anear 'er, nor she wouldn't let Jimmy neither, but she ain't far +away, and she'd 'ave what I might call cawnfidence in you, Missie--" +Cottingham had at length concluded: "Her's that sly we mightn't never +see 'er again! But you take and go up that 'ill, Missie, that's where +I seen 'er last, I'll lay you get 'er if anyone can!" + +Christian, "still," as Rossetti says, "with the whole of pleasure," +received these instructions reverently, and with the pockets of the +kennel-coat further loaded with broken biscuit, "took and went" +according to instructions. She climbed the fence behind the kennels, +and addressed herself lightly to the ascent of the hill. It was a long +hill, that began with pasture fields, that were merged imperceptibly +into moorland, heather and furze. There were sheep, and donkeys and +goats on it, and a melancholy old kennel-horse or two, all feeding +peacefully. Amazon could not be accused in connection with them, so +Christian reflected, and prepared herself to rebut any such slander. +The rain was lighter, and the soaking mist that had all day filled the +valley, was slowly thinning, and revealing the mighty scroll of silver +that was the river, while the woods and hillsides came and went, +illusive as the grey hints of landscape in a Japanese water-colour. +But at the mature age of ten years, Christian cared for none of these +things. She saw the smoke from the Mount Music kitchen chimney +blending bluely with the mist, and thought with a momentary pang of +the birthday cake. She wondered if the Companions of Finn would so far +forget honour and fidelity as to devour it without her. She thought of +the ten candles that would gutter to their end, untended by the +heroine of the celebration; she wondered if Cottingham would tell +Papa, and if Papa would tell Mother (thus did this child of the +'eighties speak of her parents, the musical abbreviations of a later +day, "Mum," and "Dad," not having penetrated the remoteness in which +her home was placed); she also wondered if there would be a row about +her getting wet. All these things seemed but too probable, but she was +in for it now. + +Near a ridge of the hill, in one of the shallow valleys that furrowed, +like ploughshares, its long slant, there was a dolmen, three huge +stones, with a fourth poised on it. Their grey brows rose over the +billows of bracken, and briers, laden with the promise of fruit, made +garlands for their ancient heads. Christian's straying advance brought +her along the lip of the little valley in which they reposed, and +quite suddenly there rose in her the conviction that her quest was +nearing success. She was of that mysteriously-gifted company to whom +the lairs of things lost are revealed. She "found things"; she was +"lucky." She was regarded by the servants as one enfolded in the cloak +of St. Anthony, that inestimable saint, whose mission it is to find +and protect the lost. It had become a household habit to appeal to +Christian when one of every day's most common losses occurred. She +would hearken; her little thin body would stiffen, like a dog setting +his game, a spark would light in her brown eyes, and--how led who can +say?--she would fly like a wireless message to the thing sought for. + +So it was now, on the furzy side of Cnocan an Ceoil Sidhe; she knew +that the moment had come. She sat down on a ledge of rock, and waited, +throbbing with anticipation, and had not long to wait. A brown shadow +moved in the bracken near the dolmen, a brown face peered with +infinite caution, round a flank of the great stones. + +"Yoop! the little bitchie!" said Christian to the horizon. Christian +was an apt scholar, and Cottingham's tone and idiom were alike +accurately rendered. + +The lady thus addressed gazed with a greater intensity, but did not +move. Christian took a piece of dog-biscuit from the ragged pocket of +the kennel-coat, and, still walking closely in Cottingham's steps, bit +it, ate a part of it, and carelessly flung the remainder in the +direction of the shadow. This stole forth, and, having snapped up the +biscuit, sank back into the covert. Christian did not move. + +"Amazon!" she crooned, in tones in which a doting wood-pigeon might +apostrophise a sickly fledgling; "Amazon, my darling!" + +Another piece of biscuit accompanied the apostrophe, and poor Amazon, +who was indeed very lonely and very hungry, capitulated, and came +sidling up to the charmer, with propitiatory smiles, and deprecating +stern wagging, beneath her, and in advance of her hind legs, instead +of above her and behind them. + +"'Olding the buckle in the right 'and," said Christian to herself, in +faithful quotation from the great ensample, as with a swiftness and +decision that were creditable to her training, she put the couples on +Amazon. + +Then she produced the bone that had been "Dixie's" bright achievement, +and it was while, in contentment and friendship, Amazon was crunching +it, that Larry Coppinger appeared. + +He rose from behind a spur of rock and furze, and came towards +Christian. + +"Oh, good for you!" he said, admiringly, "I was afraid to show up till +you had got her." + +Christian was not sure that she was pleased at this intervention. + +"How did you know where I was?" + +"The servants told me you had gone to the kennels, and Jimmy showed me +the hill, and then I spotted your white coat--not that it's so awfully +white!--I thought it was rather rotten to let you go alone." + +"And why not, pray?" enquired Christian, haughtily. Male assumption of +the duties of guardianship was a thing she found highly offensive; "I +always go about alone!" + +"Well, I wanted to come, anyway," said Larry, with a placating grin. +"I say, that _is_ an awful nice dog!" + +"You never call foxhounds '_dogs_'!" said Christian, still with +hauteur; "Larry, you _are_ an owl!" + +But she enjoyed the consciousness of knowing more than he did; she +even forgave him his superfluousness. She thought it was rather decent +of him to have come, and she let him lead Amazon for a part of the +way, only reserving to herself the entry into the presence of +Cottingham, bringing her sheaf with her. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Are childhood and youth indeed Vanity? When Christian looks back upon +her childhood at Mount Music, it seems to her that the World, and +Life, and Time, could hardly have bettered it for her, however they +might have put their heads together over the job. + +All her memories are steeped in sunlight. It was all fun and fights, +and strawberries and dogs, and donkey-riding, and hot evenings on the +big river, with the hum of flies in her ears, and Larry, hailing her +from the farther bank of the Ownashee, across the stepping-stones. And +whenever she thought about the schoolroom, it was always warm and +rather jolly, especially in the Christmas holidays. They used to have +drawing competitions, of which Larry was, of course, the promoter, in +the old schoolroom, during the long winter evenings. Larry always had +a pencil in his hand, and was renowned as an artist of horses and +hounds, and Finn's wolf-dog, Bran, besides wielding a biting pen as a +caricaturist. Christian could only compete in architectural designs +that demanded neatness and exactness, but Georgy, the elder twin, had +some skill in marine subjects, and, since he was going to the +"Britannia," arrogated to himself the position of being an authority +on shipping; so much so, indeed, that general satisfaction was felt +when he was, one evening, worsted by Christian. The subject selected +for competition was "A Haunted Ship." + +"Where shall I put the ghost?" Georgy debated, chewing the end of his +pencil, with his head on one side. + +"In the shrouds, of course!" said Christian. + +"Funny dog!" sneered Georgy, who considered that his artistic efforts +were no fit subject for jesting. "You'd better come and shove in one +of your Midianites for me!" + +Then Christian, with the disconcerting swiftness of action, mental and +physical, that was peculiarly hers, snatched, in a flash, the mug of +painted-water from Larry's elbow, and poured its contents over +Georgy's fair bullet-head; with which, and with a triumphing cry +(learnt from a County Cork kitchenmaid, and very fashionable in the +schoolroom) of "A-haadie!" she fled, "lighter-footed than the fox," +and equally subtle and daring. + +Christian was not easily roused to wrath, but when this occurred, +youngest of the party though she was, it was but rarely that victory +did not rest with her. Two subjects were marked dangerous among these +children, during the combative years of "growing-up," and were +therefore specially popular; of these, the one was Christian's reputed +occult power, coupled with gibes based on that hymn to which reference +has been made; the other was Larry's religion. + +To the Talbot-Lowry children, their own religion was largely a matter +of fetishes, with fluctuating restrictions as to what might or might +not be done on Sundays, but they found Larry's a more stimulating +subject. It was impossible for them to refrain from speculations as to +what Larry said when he went to confession; equally impossible not to +propose to the prospective penitent an assortment of sins to be avowed +at his next shriving, even though the suggestions seldom failed to +provoke conflict of the intensity usually associated with religious +warfare. + +Lady Isabel, confronted with these problems, fell back on the manuals +of her own youth, with their artless pronouncements on the Righteous, +the Wicked, their qualifications, their prospects; and, since the +manuals had an indisputable _flair_ for the subjects most likely +to seize the attention of the young, Lady Isabel was generally able to +divert her offspring's attention from the Errors of Rome, with +digested narratives of "Adamaneve" (pronounced as one word) and the +Serpent, Balaam's Ass, Jonah's Whale, and similar non-controversial +matters. + +"Wiser people than you and me, darlings," she would say, with a slight +stagger in grammar, but none in orthodoxy, "have explained it all for +us--" + +"Larry's papa and mamma didn't quite think the same as we do, but we +needn't think about that, my pet!" + +"But, mother, Evans says that the Pope--" appalling prognostications +as to the future of that dignitary would probably follow. + +Unfortunate Lady Isabel! But parents and guardians have, at least, the +power of the closure. + +"We needn't talk about it now," says the hard-pressed mother, "when +you're grown up you will understand it all better--" + +With Christian, however, this formula was less efficacious than with +her elder brothers and sister. Her questioning, analysing, unwearying +brain ignored the closure, and evaded poor Lady Isabel's evasions. Her +religious life had been singularly vivacious, and the scope and +variety of the petitions that she nightly offered caused considerable +embarrassment to her mother. What was any good Church of England, or +Ireland, mamma to do when an infant of four years implores its Deity: + +"Make me to have a good, fat, lively conscience, and even if God +curses me, help me not to mind a bit!" + +The scandalised mamma decided that extempore prayer must be +discouraged, and seeking out in one of the manuals a form of prayer of +strictly limited range, repressed all additions and emendations. + +Obedient to the traditions of her own youth, Lady Isabel, as her +children successively attained the mature age of six years, bestowed +Bibles upon them, but it was Christian, alone of the family, that +applied herself with any diligence to the study of the Scriptures. She +began with the Book of Esther (in which she found a satisfaction that +in after life remained something of a bewilderment to her), and +thence, but this was a year or two later, for no reason that can be +assigned, she passed lightly to the Book of Revelation. With it, it +may be said, the artistic side of her, that had leaped to sympathy +with Larry's emotion over "Dark Rosaleen" and "The Spirit of the +Nation," awakened, and her artistic life began. That glittering, +prismatic chapter, that tells of the rainbow round about the Throne, +in sight like unto an emerald, and the Sea of glass, like unto +crystal, that was before the Throne, and the thunderings and the +voices, and the Voice as it were a trumpet talking. Christian read the +chapter over and over again, for the sheer glory of the beautiful +words. She, also, knew of Voices, and Music, that other people did not +seem to hear. She could understand, and could tremble to those strange +shouts, and trumpet-blasts, and thunderings. + +The Pale Horse that happened after the Fourth Seal was broken! + +She would sit as still as if she were frozen, while she thought of the +Pale Horse coming crashing through Dharrig Wood, with Death on his +back, and Hell following with him--she always thought of him in that +black wood of pine trees-- + +"Wake up, Christian!" Miss Weyman, the governess, would say. + +One of the Twins would hiss between his teeth: "Christian, dost thou +see them?" + +Christian would feel a spiritual bump, as though she had been flung +off her chair on to the schoolroom floor, and Miss Weyman (always +enviously spoken of by adjacent mammas as "that most sensible little +Englishwoman") would say: + +"I wonder how much you heard of what I was reading! I wish I could see +you learning to have a little more concentration!" + +Whereas, did the excellent Miss Weyman only know it, a very little +more concentration on Christian's part, and it is possible that she, +and Judith, and the Twins, might all have seen the Pale Horse +thundering past the schoolroom windows. Stranger things have happened. +The Indian rope and basket trick, for instance. + +"A most curious child--a perfect passion for animals, and so _dreamy_, +if you know what I mean," Miss Weyman would say to a comrade visitor. +"And the things that she seems to have learnt from the huntsman! But +really a nice little thing, and clever, too, though a _most_ erratic +worker! Now, Judith--" Miss Weyman felt there was some satisfaction +in teaching Judith. _She_ could concentrate, if the comrade visitor +liked! Nothing was a difficulty to her! And her memory! And her +energy--Miss Weyman freely admitted that Judith was three years older +than Christian, but still-- + +In short, Judith was a credit to any sensible little Englishwoman, but +Christian had a way of knowing nothing (as touching arithmetic, for +example), or too much (as touching Shakespeare and the Book of +Revelation), that implied considerable independence as to the +instructions of Miss Weyman, and no sensible little Englishwoman could +be expected to enjoy that. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +It is not peculiar to Irish incomes to fail to develop in response to +increasing demands upon them. It was, however, a distinctive feature +of the incomes of those who were Irish landlords during the latter +years of the Victorian era, to shrink in steady response to the +difficulties of English government in Ireland. Only Irish people can +understand the complicated processes of erosion to which Dick +Talbot-Lowry's resources were subjected, or can realise the tests of +fortitude and endurance to a man of spirit, that were involved by the +visitations of "Commissioners," with their fore-ordained mission of +lowering Dick's rents, rents that, in Dick's opinion, were already +philanthropically low. Major Talbot-Lowry, like many of his tribe, +though a pessimist in politics, was an optimist in most other matters, +and found it impossible to conceive a state of affairs when he would +be unable to do--approximately--whatever he had a mind for. At the age +of fifty-eight, fortitude and endurance are something of a difficulty +for a gentleman unused to the exercise of either of these fine +qualities, and after keeping the Broadwater Vale Hounds, for seventeen +years, as hounds should be kept, regardless of the caprices of the +subscription list, Major-Talbot-Lowry felt that he had deserved better +of his country than that he should now have to institute minor +economies, such as putting his men into brown breeches, foregoing the +yearly renewal of their scarlet coats, and other like humiliations. +Farther than details such as these, his sense of right and wrong did +not permit him to go. + +"There are some things that they can't expect a gentleman to do," he +would say to his cousin, Miss Coppinger, "and as long as I keep the +hounds--" + +"Then, my dear Dick, if you can't afford them, why keep them?" +Frederica would rejoin, with unsparing common-sense. + +Unmarried ladies of mature age, have, as a rule, learned not only +fortitude and endurance, but have also mastered the fact that ways are +governed by means. Those processes of erosion, however, to which +reference has been made, were, comparatively speaking, slow in +operation, and there remained always Lady Isabel's twenty thousand +golden sovereigns, as safe and secluded in the hands of trustees (who +had a constitutional disbelief in Irishmen), as if they were twenty +thousand nuns under the rule of a royal abbess. + +Therefore did Major Talbot-Lowry, M.F.H., and the Broadwater Vale +Hounds, make a creditable show, brown breeches and last season's pink +coats notwithstanding, at the meet at Coppinger's Court, on December +26th of the year 1897. The weather was grey and silver, with a light +southeast wind and a rising glass. Sunshine was filtering down, as it +were through muslin curtains that might at any moment be withdrawn; +some crocuses and snowdrops had appeared in the grass round the wide +gravel sweep in front of the house; there was a perplexed primrose or +two, deceived by the sun as to the date; the scent of the violets in +the bed under the drawing-room windows, came in delicate whiffs round +the corner of the house. It would have been impossible to believe that +but twenty-four hours ago, Christmas hymns had been shouted, and +Christmas presents presented, had not a group of "Wran-boys" offered +irrefutable testimony that this was indeed the Feast of Stephen. +These, a ragged and tawdry little cluster of mummers, shabby survivors +of mediaeval mysteries, were gathered round their ensign holly-bush in +front of the hall-door steps. From the holly-bush swung the corpse of +the wren, and from the throats of the Wran-Boys came the song that +recounts the wicked wren's pursuit and slaughter: + + "The Wran, the Wran, the King of all birds, + On Stephenses' Day was cot in the furze, + And though he is little, his family is great, + Rise up, good gentlemen, and give us a thrate--Huzzay!" + +Wherever in South Munster two or three boys were gathered together, +that song was being sung, and Major Talbot-Lowry and his staff had +already met so many of such companies on their way to the Meet, that +their horses' indignation at finding a further collection of +nightmares at Coppinger's Court was excusable. + +On the high flight of hall-door steps, stood Larry and Miss Coppinger, +the former pale with excitement, the latter doggedly resigned to the +convention that compelled her to offer intoxicating drinks to people +who, as she said, had but just swallowed their breakfasts. Larry had +learned many things since that day of abysmal ignorance when he had +spoken of Amazon as a "nice dog." Among his many enthusiasms he now +included a passion for the chase, and all that appertains to its +elaborate cult, that complied with Christian's, and even Cottingham's, +sense of what was becoming, and, having dedicated a shelf in the +library to books on hunting, he had read them all, with the same +ardour that, four years earlier, he had brought to bear on The Spirit +of the Nation and Irish history. + +Major Talbot-Lowry looked down, from the top of his tall, white-faced +chestnut, on his young cousin, and accepted the glass of port that +Larry reverently offered to him, with a pleased appreciation of the +reverence. Cousin Dick was not invariably pleased with his young +cousin. He had gathered, hazily, from his wife, such of the tenets of +the Companions of Finn as she, instructed by Miss Weyman, had been +able to impart, and had not approved of them, nor of Larry's part in +introducing them to his young; also it was annoying (especially when +he remembered the brown breeches, etc.) to think of a young cub of a +boy having more money than he knew what to do with; and, finally, and +all the time, there was that almost unconscious, inbred distrust of +Larry's religion. + +Nevertheless, it has been said that "wise men live in the present, for +its bounties suffice them," and Dick, if not very wise, was very +good-natured, and was wise enough to realise that the fine weather, +and the good horse under him, and even Larry's homage, were bounties +sufficient unto the day. + +"Got a fox for me, Larry? That's right. Good boy. Where d'ye think +we'll find him?" + +"He's using the Quarry Wood earth, Cousin Dick," said Larry, +breathlessly, with the anxiety of the owner of the coverts alight in +his eyes. "I'm certain he's there. I went round with Sullivan myself +last night, and we stopped the whole place. I bet he'll not get in +anywhere!" + +"Good! I'll draw the Quarry Wood first," said Cousin Dick, with royal +benignity. "You get away outside at the western end, and keep a +look-out for him." + +A heavy man, on an enormous grey horse, had approached the Master, +having edged his way through the hounds with ostentatious care. He was +of a type sufficiently common among southern Irishmen, with thick, +strong-growing, black hair, a large, black moustache, and heavy brows, +over-shadowing eyes of precisely the same shade of blunted blue as his +shaven chin. + +"He's a credit to his breeding, Major!" said the heavy man, indicating +Larry with a sandwich from which he had taken a bite of the size of +one of his horse's hoofs; "I wish we had a few more lads coming on in +the country like him!" + +"What good are they going to do?" responded the Master, reverting to +the pessimistic mood that was daily becoming more frequent with him; +"what chance is there for a gentleman in this damned country? You +might as well have a mill-stone round your neck as an Irish property +these times! What do you suppose will be left to us after the next +'Revision of Rents,' as they call it?" + +"Well, deuce a much indeed," returned Doctor Mangan, equably, "but it +mightn't be so bad as that altogether! I have my little girl out for +the first time to-day, Major. I wonder might I ask your man, that's +looking after your young ladies, to have an eye to her, too?" + +Doctor Mangan withdrew with the required permission, and with his +daughter at his heels, proceeded through the assembling riders and +carriages, distributing greetings as he went. + +Doctor Francis Aloysius Mangan was one of the leading doctors in the +district of which the towns of Cluhir and Riverstown each felt itself +to fill the most important place. Ireland grows doctors and clergymen +with almost equal success and profusion. There is in the national +character a considerable share of the constituents that are valuable +in both professions. Power of sympathy, good-nature, intuition, +adroitness, discernment of character, and a gift for taking every man +in his humour. Qualities that are perhaps beside the specialised +requirements, but are equally indispensable. + +In what degree these attributes were bestowed upon Doctor Mangan may +gradually be ascertained by the patient reader, but in the case of +Father David Hogan, P.P., of Riverstown, at this juncture in lively +converse with the Misses Talbot-Lowry, the reader may be spared the +exercise of that tiresome virtue, and may feel confident that Father +Hogan failed in none of the qualities that have been enumerated. +Father David was, indeed, the most popular man in the country with all +classes and creeds; he was universally known as the Chaplain of the +B.V.H., and was accounted one of the chiefest glories of the hunt. +Major Talbot-Lowry was accustomed to boast, in places where such as he +congregate, that He, in His country, had the best priest in Ireland! A +real good man. Kept the farmers civil and friendly. Managed a district +for the Fowl Fund. And a topper to ride--always at the top of the +hunt! + +"Trust a priest to have a good horse!" is the rejoinder prescribed in +such cases, and Major Dick's fellows seldom failed to comply with the +ritual. + +Father David, stout, jolly, and, like his namesake, of a ruddy +countenance, mounted upon a black mare as stout and sporting-looking +as himself, was, as Doctor Mangan drew near to the Misses +Talbot-Lowry, beaming upon these two lambs from another fold, and +having congratulated Miss Judith on the appearance of the grey mare +that she was riding (reft from Lady Isabel and the victoria), was +endearing himself to Miss Christian by tales of the brace of hound +puppies that he was walking for the hunt. + +The advantage of being the youngest member of a large family is one +that takes a considerable time to mature. Christian was thirteen years +old before what was left of one of the Hunt horses, after seven +strenuous seasons of official work, was placed at her sole disposal. +This residue, battered though it was, and a roarer of remarkable power +and volume, was incapable of falling, and with anything under eight +stone on its piebald back (piebald from incessant and sedulously +concealed saddle-galls) could always be trusted to keep within +reasonable distance of hounds when they ran. It was fortunate for +Christian that Judith, now sixteen, and far from a feather-weight, had +renounced her share in "Harry," and had established a right in the +grey mare. Judith was a buccaneer. Charles, the coachman, (in +connection with the commandeering of the grey mare, which he resented) +had said of her to his respected friend, Mr. Evans: "Ah, ah! That's +the young lady that'll get her whack out of the world!" + +And Mr. Evans' reaping-hook nose had sniffed assent. + +Yet, though Judith was averted, the Christmas holidays always held the +menace of brothers to be reckoned with as rival claimants for Harry. + +"The boys, darling!" "Unselfishness, darling!" "After the holidays, my +child!" + +Lady Isabel was of the school that inculcated self-denial for its +daughters, but never for its sons; (whether from a belief that such +was inherent in the male sex, or from a fear that the effort would be +misplaced, it is difficult to say). Christian was ever quick to +respond to the call for martyrdom, but that the Twins should both +maltreat and despise the venerable Harry, added a poignancy to +renunciation that placed it almost beyond attainment. On this day of +festival, happily, renunciation was not exacted; other attractions had +absorbed the Twins, and Christian's rights were unchallenged. + +Therefore, it was that the youngest Miss Talbot-Lowry, perched on old +Harry's broad back, and looking of about the same size in relation to +it as the "Wran" to the holly-bush, was now blissfully discussing +hound-puppies with her trusted friend, Father David, and was asking +nothing more that life could offer. + +Dr. Mangan, meantime, waited, with a permissive smile, for the moment +to make his "little girl" known to the young ladies from Mount Music, +and to their cousin, young Larry Coppinger. He was in no hurry, and he +had often had occasion to agree with Milton (though he had been quite +unaware of so doing) in thinking that they also serve who only stand +and wait. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +It may be permissible to introduce a meet of hounds at or about the +end of a chapter, but I feel sure that the ensuing run must be given +elbow-room. Alarming to many though this statement may be, yet it may +be said that its foundations are laid in truth and equity, and in the +necessities of this history may be found the justification of the +chapter. + +The Quarry Wood had not failed. Larry's fox had been in it. To Larry, +seated on his stout, bay cob, with a heart banging against his ribs, +and a soul absorbed into a single supplication, had come, suddenly and +beautifully, the answer to prayer, the ineffable spectacle of a large +and lovely fox, sliding quietly away, at the right place, at the right +moment. Life could offer Larry no more; not then, at all events. + +"_My_ coverts--_my_ fox!" + +Not many boys of sixteen, enthusiasts, endowed with just that touch of +the poetic temperament that can set the brain reeling, could know a +more wondrous moment. + +Then to see Cousin Dick, blazing and splendid, charging out of the +wood, "like the man on the red horse in Revelation," as Christian said +afterwards--(Christian had sneaked away from Charles, the coachman, +and had followed Larry)--with the hounds flashing around and ahead of +him, and Cottingham's rasping "Forrad! Forrad!" from the wood behind, +like the blast of a bellows upon flames! + +Larry had been past speech when that apocalyptic vision had +materialised in response to his halloa. He had waved his hat and +cheered the hounds to the line of the fox, but it had been +unnecessary; they had not had an instant's uncertainty, and had taken +hold on their own account without reference to anyone. + +That the hold taken by the hounds was a firm and assured one was due, +not only to their own virtues, but also to the fact that where the fox +had broken, a tract of turf bog met the wood, and carried a scent of +entire efficiency. What, however, it was incapable of carrying were +the horses. The hounds, uttering their ecstasy in that gorgeous chorus +of harmonious discordance called Full Cry, sped across the bog like a +flock of seagulls; but for the riders, a narrow track between deep +ditches left by the turf-cutters for their carts, was the sole hope, +and a string of horses, galloping in single file, was soon following +hard on the heels of the Master. Foremost of them all were Christian +and Larry, filled with an elation beyond the power of words to convey. +The hounds were holding steadily right-handed across the bog, and were +ever widening the distance between them and the riders, but it was +enough for these two children to be able to keep their proud place, +next after the Master, and to know that no one, not even Cottingham, +could deprive them of it. It may gravely be questioned if Tommy, the +stout bay cob, and Harry, the residue of a hunt horse, appreciated a +position to which they were so little accustomed. Harry, whose heart, +indisputably in the right place, was possibly the only sound item in +his outfit, pounded gallantly on, roaring as he went, like a lion +seeking after his prey; but Tommy, whose labours were, as a rule, +limited to mild harness-work, was kept going mainly by stress of +circumstances, in which category Larry's spurs took a prominent part. +The bog-track at length became merged in a rushy field, and then +indeed did the pent waters of the hunt break forth. Major Dick's tall +chestnut had gradually increased his lead, and by the time the track +was clear of riders, he was two fields ahead, with Cottingham not far +behind, and a few indignant young men riding like maniacs to overtake +them. To have been held back by a schoolboy and a little girl is an +indignity not easily to be borne. The Broadwater Vale field was a +hard-going one, including a strengthening of young soldiers from the +regiment quartered at Riverstown, and it was not long before Tommy and +Harry were beginning to find themselves in a more familiar and less +exigent position. Judith, on the grey mare, went by them like a flash; +Doctor Mangan overtook them heavily, and heavily passed them. Father +David, riding a little wide of the crowd, waved a friendly hand to +Christian, as the black mare, composed and discreet, as became a +daughter of the Church, dwelt for an instant on the top of a wide +bank, before she struck off into the next field. Worst indignity of +all, Charles, the coachman, on the elderly carriage horse, drew +alongside, and presumed to offer directions and admonitions. "As if," +thought Christian, as she drove Harry at the bank in the wake of the +black mare, "I cared a pin what he says!" + +Gone for poor Charles were the days when Miss Christian had revered +him above all other created things; days such as the one on which, +after a ride round the yard on an unharnessed carriage horse, +Christian, in gratitude too great for words, had attempted to kiss +him. Charles had repelled the embrace, saying tactfully: "No pleasures +in Lent, Miss!" and Christian had accepted the excuse. Then Miss +Christian had been three years old, now she was thirteen, and Charles +had, in the interval, married a cook, and lost his figure, and with +it, had departed his nerve, and the reverance of Miss Christian, and +he knew it. + +Close behind Charles came Dr. Mangan's "little girl," who had been +confided with a lubricating half-crown, to his care. Miss Letitia +Mangan was far from considering herself a little girl. She was sixteen +and a half, and conceived herself to be of combatant rank, even though +her thick, dark hair banged on her back in a ponderous pigtail, and +her education at the Cluhir Convent School was still uncompleted. The +fat, piebald pony that she was riding would have a sore back before +she got home. Christian, perched wren-like on her ancient steed (but a +wren placed with mathematical accuracy of directness with relation to +the steed's ears), noted with disfavour the crooked seat, the heavy +hand on the curb. Larry, hot and pink, with hat hanging by its guard, +his fair hair looking like storm-tossed corn-stooks, noted nothing, +being wholly engrossed in bitter conflict with Tommy. The art of +keeping a good start with hounds is not given to many, and least of +all to the young and inexperienced. From having been first of the +first, it had fallen to Larry and Christian to find themselves last, +and last in the despised company of Charles and "the Mangan girl." + +The unexacting position of being at the heel of the hunt may have a +charm for the philosophic or unambitious, but so black a continuation +of so great a start was a trial quite beyond the endurance of a young +gentleman possessed of the artistic temperament. And then the +abominable Mangan girl came into play, and joined in the circling +performance at the big bank. Always, when Larry felt that this time +the cob was going to "have it," that cow-like red and white beast +would jam itself in the way, so he thought, raging. In this matter of +hunting, Dr. Mangan had not been well advised in his scheme for his +little girl's social advantage. + +In the meantime the hounds had run their fox into Drumkeen Wood, and +the riders, arriving in small and breathless companies, thanked God +for a check, and tightened their girths and took courage. The latter +would undoubtedly be needed if the run continued; Drumkeen Wood was +hung like a cloak upon the side of a steep hill, and was the +invariable prelude to the worst going within the bounds of the hunt. + +"If he's into the big earth here, I'm afraid it's good-bye to him!" +said Dr. Mangan, taking courage in a liquid form. "It was a sweet +gallop while it lasted! Sweet and short, like this toothful of cherry +brandy I'm after drinking!" + +"Ah, that's poor stuff, Doctor," said Mr. Hallinan, proprietor of +Hallinan's Hotel, a prosperous hostelry, much patronised by +salmon-fishers. "Give me a sup of good old John Jameson in its +purity!" + +"'Twas for Tishy I brought this out," replied the Doctor, +apologetically; "but I lost sight of her. She's back somewhere with +little Christian Lowry and young Coppinger." + +"What sort of a lad is that?" asked Mr. Hallinan. "Is he as big a pup +as them young Lowrys?" + +"Ah, they're not so bad altogether," said Dr. Mangan, indulgently. +"Young sprigs like them are none the worse for a little _tashpy_, +as the people say!" The Doctor's heavy voice relaxed a little over the +world _tashpy_ (which, it should perhaps be explained, is Irish, +and implies a blend of impudence and high spirits). He was quite aware +that his friend Hallinan and he regarded the Talbot-Lowrys from a +different standpoint. + +"I was having a bit of lunch there the other day," he went on, "and I +thought they were nice boys enough." + +"I hope you got enough to eat!" said Mr. Hallinan, disagreeably; "I'm +told that their butcher's sick and tired trying to get what he's owed, +out of them! There should be drink enough, anyway! I'm just after +sending in a case of whisky there. God knows when I'll be ped for it!" + +At this moment the two gentlemen, whose horses were nibbling the grass +of the bank that surrounded the wood, were shaken by the sudden +appearance of the white nose of the Master's chestnut on the other +side of the bank. + +"I'd be obliged if there was less noise!" said the Master's voice, +with threatening in it. + +Mr. Hallinan's jaw dropped unaffectedly. + +"Merciful God!" he murmured; "did he hear me, d'ye think?" + +"Ah, no fear, man!" whispered the Doctor, encouragingly. "And if he +did itself, maybe you'd get your cheque a bit quicker!" + +In the silence that followed, a whimpering whistle from a hound, +invisible, yet near at hand, sent a thrill through the waiting riders. +There followed the rustling rush of hounds through the undergrowth, as +they gathered to enquire into the whimper. Then another whimper, +merging into a squeal, and Cottingham's voice: + +"Hark to Dulcet! Forrad to Dulcet!" + +"Begad, they have him again," said Dr. Mangan, without enthusiasm. "I +wonder where is Tishy gone to? I suppose they'll run these blasted +hills now--" + +The big grey horse, and his seventeen stone rider, moved off in the +opposite direction to the tread of the hunt, which was slowly and +steadily pushing upwards through the wood. Dr. Mangan was one of the +select company of followers of hounds who know when they have had +enough. + +A narrow, stony passage, more resembling a drain than a lane, ran +round the wood; the riders hustled along it, like a train in a +cutting, too tightly packed for the most vindictive kicker to injure +his neighbour, too hampered by impeding rocks to make more speed than +can be accomplished by a jog. The drain ended at a V-shaped fissure +between two slants of rock, and, by the time the last horse had +clattered and scrambled up it, the hounds were away again, steering +up, across heathery fields, enclosed by fences and stone walls of all +sorts and sizes, for a great double-headed hill on the sky-line, three +or more miles away. + +"Carrigaholt as usual!" said Major Dick, over his shoulder, to the +Hon. Sec., young Kirby of Castle Ire. "If you get a chance, try and +head him off the western rocks--and Bill! Tell those infernal +children of mine they're to keep with Charles and look out for bogs!" + +His conscience as a parent thus appeased, the Master applied himself +to the no small task of keeping his hounds in sight, and of evading +the equal difficulties presented by rocks and bog holes. The offspring +in question were now, with Larry, in comparative and undesired safety +beneath the fluttering wing of Charles, and Bill Kirby, having +faithfully delivered his message, found himself immediately adopted as +an alternative protector, and repented him of his fidelity. + +The hounds stormed on through the hills, running hard across the +frequent boggy tracts, more slowly, and with searchings, over the +intervening humps of rock and furze. The fox was making a well-known +point, and running a well-known line, but the fences in their infinite +variety, defied the staling force of custom, and the difficulties of +the going were intensified by the pace. The hounds gained at length +the ridge of the high country, and as they flitted along the skyline, +the riders, labouring among the rocks, skirting the bogs, pounding at +the best pace they could raise over the intervals of heather and +grass, felt that their hold on the hunt had become distinctly +insecure. + +"'Christian dost thou see them?'" quoted Larry, kicking his heels into +the bay cob's well-covered ribs without effect, "for I don't!" + +"They'll check at Carrigaholt," called back Bill Kirby; "that'll be +our chance--" + +They were far up on the slope of the hills now; the country swung in +long, dipping lines, down to the Vale of the Broadwater, and spread, +in great and generous curves, away to the far range of the Mweelin +Mountains, that brooded, in colour a deep and sullen sapphire, on the +horizon. The town of Cluhir, a little puff of smoke, cut in two by the +wide river, lay below. The spires of the two churches rose above the +smoke, one on either side of the bridge that spanned the river. The +sound of bells, faintly rising from one of them, summoned the faithful +to the mid-day Mass in honour of St. Stephen. + +Larry, pushing Tommy along at a dogged canter, lifted his bowler hat +as he heard the bells, and Christian and Judith looked at each other. +The tradition of the Protestant, "No demonstrations!" with its +singular suspicion and distrust of manifestations of reverence or +poetry, had been early implanted in them, and Judith murmured to +Christian: "How on earth does he remember?" + +"I know I couldn't," admitted Christian; yet some feeling that, though +crushed, had survived the heavy feet of Lady Isabel's trusted manuals, +stirred in her in accord with the faint clash of the chapel bells, +making her envy Larry his accredited salutation, making her feel +something of the beauty, if not of holiness, of, at least, the +recognition that there were holy things in the world. + +On the nearer head of Carrigaholt the check, predicted by Bill Kirby, +came. A narrow and level plateau ran between the twin crests; above it +on both sides, rose successive shelves of cliff, with swathes of +russet bracken muffling their fierce outline. Flung about on the +shelves, looking like tumbled piles of giant books in a neglected +library, were immense rectangular rocks; one would say that only the +grey and knotted cords of the ivy that had crept over them, held them +in their place upon those rugged shelves. At one end of the level +place the ground fell steeply to a wild stream, the Feorish, from +whose farther bank another hill, but little less formidable than +Carrigaholt, rose like an enemy tower, threatening its defences. The +hounds swarmed like bees among the rocks, jumping or falling from +shelf to shelf, burrowing and thrusting through the bracken, their +heads appearing suddenly in quite improbable places, with glowing eyes +and glistening pink tongues, demanding from their huntsman the +information that no one but themselves could give. + +It was a place in which not one, but a hundred places of safety +presented themselves to a fox, but this good fox had despised them +all, and, of all the hounds, it was Amazon, Christian's beloved +foundling, who was first to recognise the fact. Far down, from the +bottom of the gorge, she called to her fellows, and it was Christian, +of all the riders, who first heard her voice. If Larry had had his +great moment, when the fox broke, it was Christian's turn now, when +Amazon fresh-found him. I suppose there are not very many people who, +as well as being perfectly happy, are conscious of their perfect +happiness. This little girl was of that privileged company, as, in +answer to her call, her father threw the pack over the edge of the +plateau and cheered them to Amazon. + +In two minutes, a frenzied chorus was filling the narrow gorge, the +cry of the hounds, the hurrying reiterated notes of the horn, the +shouts of the Whips rating on stragglers, echoing and re-echoing from +cliff to cliff. Before the riders had committed themselves to the +descent, the leading hounds were straining up the opposite cliff face; +slithering, and slipping, the horses were hurried down a track that +goats had made between rocks and bracken, and, at the base, found +themselves confronted with the problem of the river. The River Styx +could hardly look less attractive than did the Feorish, as it swirled, +swollen and foaming, among its rocks, its dark torrent plunging from +steep to steep in roaring waterfalls. Some country men, high on the +cliffs, howled directions, and the Master, his eye on his hounds +struggling with the fierce stream, went on down the gorge until the +howls changed their metre, thus indicating to the experienced that the +moment had come to cross the river. The ford, such as it was, +permitted some half dozen of the horses to cross it, splashing and +floundering, wobbling perilously from the round and slimy back of one +sunken rock to another. + +Judith and the grey mare, following close on Bill Kirby's heels, got +over neatly, and were away after him over the top of the hill before +Christian's turn came. The ancient and skilled Harry addressed himself +to the task with elderly caution, feeling his way with suspicion, +creeping across with slow-poised feet, and was so delicate over the +effort, that Larry's cob, following too close on him, was checked at a +critical moment. He struggled, slipped, recovered, found himself still +hindered by Harry, and, with a final stagger, lost footing altogether, +and rolled over. + +Cottingham, subsequently recounting the incident, declared that +_he_ thought, he did, that the young genel'm was done for; but +"that little Miss Christeen--she's a nummer she is!--she off'n 'er +'oss before I fair sees what's 'appened, and she ketches the young +chap by the 'ed, and pulls 'im clear! Her did indeed! A lill' gurl +like what she is too! Her's wuth more than ten big men!" + +What a singular encomium, "a nummer" might mean, was a fact known only +to Cottingham, but it was incontrovertibly Christian's eel-like +swiftness of action that had saved Larry from a worse accident. Small +and slender though she was, she was wiry, and she had the gift of +being able instantly to concentrate every force of mind and body upon +a desired point--a rare gift and a precious one. + +But when she and Larry, dripping and hatless, were hauled into safety +by other helpers, less swift but more powerful, it was found that +Larry had not come out of the Feorish unscathed. His left hand was +hanging, helpless, with a broken wrist. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The hunt swept on after the manner of hunts, full of sympathy, having, +as to one man, contributed a silver cigarette case, with which +another, a resourceful medical student, had improvised a splint, but +feeling, not without relief, that they could do nothing more; feeling +also, with depression, that the Lord only knew where the devils had +run to by this time, but that that couldn't be helped; with which +philosophic reflection and many valedictory shouts of commiseration, +the last of them had vanished over the hill. + +The unfortunate Charles restored to guardianship, now found himself +with Miss Judith, lost; Miss Christian soaked to the skin, eight miles +or more from her home; Master Larry ditto, in much pain, no nearer to +his, and unable to mount his horse, which latter would have to be led +over a succession of fences to the nearest road; (and no matter with +what distinction an elderly coachman can drive a pair of horses on a +road, it is very far from being the same thing to get a pair of horses +across a country). It was, therefore, a very gloomy party that set +face for the nearest highway. The intricacies of procedure at each +jump need not here be dealt with, but it may be said that a more +thankful man than Charles, when he again felt the good macadam under +his feet, is not often met with. He would at that moment have said +that he could not have felt an intenser gratitude than suffused him as +he saw his convoy safe off the hills; but there he would have +over-stated the case, since, scarcely five minutes after the road had +been reached, an even more supreme thankfulness was his. Coming +rapidly towards him, he beheld Dr. Mangan's outside car, and upon it +was the large person of Dr. Mangan himself. + +"Well," said Charles that evening, to Mr. Evans, "if it was the Angel +Gabriel I seen flying down to me, I wouldn't be as glad as what I was +when I seen the Big Doctor on the side-car!" + +And Mr. Evans had caustically rejoined: "It'll be the funny day when +you'll see wings on _him_!" meaning Dr. Mangan, of whom he had a +low opinion. + +Wings or no wings, no angel of mercy and succour was ever more welcome +or more needed than was the Big Doctor at this moment. Larry, very +white, shivering with pain and cold, was lifted on to the car; +Christian was told to gallop away home as fast as she could, and +Charles was directed to let Miss Coppinger know that her nephew would +be put up for the night at the Doctor's own house at Cluhir. + +"You can say to her that I met the Hunt, and one of them told me what +happened," said the Big Doctor, "and I knew then what to do." + +It might, indeed, habitually be said of Dr. Mangan that he knew very +well what to do. There were, indeed, but two occasions on record when +it might have seemed that he had not so known. The first of these was +when he had abandoned an improving practice in Dublin to work as his +father's partner in his native Cluhir, the second, when, preliminary +to that return, he had married a lady, alleged, by inventive and +disagreeable people, to have been his cook. The disagreeable people +had also said disagreeable things as to the nature of the stress that +had prompted the marriage. But it was now twenty years since the +Mangans had been established at Number Six, The Mall, Cluhir; the +Doctor had come in for his father's money as well as his practice, and +was respected as "a warm man"; the disagreeable ones had grown old, +and people who are both old and disagreeable cannot expect to command +a large audience. Mrs. Mangan, on the contrary, was neither the one +nor the other, being, at this time, but little over forty, and as +kindly, lazy, and handsome a creature as ever lived down spiteful +gossip by good-nature. When "The Dawkthor" (as she called him, with a +drowsy drag on the first syllable) had galloped in at one o'clock to +command Barty's room to be got ready at once, Mrs. Mangan was still in +what she called "dishable," and was straying between her bedroom and +the kitchen, pleasurably involved in the cares of both. + +"They say young Coppinger fell in the river, and he's broken his +wrist," said the Doctor rapidly, stamping into his wife's room, +bringing the wind of the hills with him. "I'll bring him here as soon +as I can get hold of him." + +"The creature!" replied Mrs. Mangan, sympathetically. + +"Well, don't be waiting to pity him now!" said her husband, stuffing +bandages into his pocket, "but hurry and put hot jars into the +bed--and clean sheets. Don't forget now, Annie!" + +He lumbered in his long boots and spurs, down to the surgery, still +issuing directions. + +"Tishy'll be back directly--she'll give you a hand--and Annie! tell +Hannah to have some hot soup ready. Now, hurry, for God's sake!" + +The front door into the Mall, Cluhir's most fashionable quarter, +banged. + +"Well, well!" said Mrs. Mangan, still sympathetic, while she removed +the curling-pins from her bison fringe; "wasn't it the will of God +that I had a headache this morning and couldn't go to Mass! I'll have +something to say to Father Greer now if he draws it up to me that I +was backward in my duty!" + +Much fortified by this reflection, Mrs. Mangan hurriedly proceeded +with her toilette, squalling meanwhile to her bench-woman in the +kitchen a summary of the Doctor's orders. She had no more than +achieved what she called her "Sunday dress," a complimentary effort to +be equally divided between Saint Stephen and young Mr. Coppinger, when +the back-door into the yard from the house slammed, and her daughter's +voice announced her return. + +"Come up, Tishy, till I talk to you!" shouted Mrs. Mangan, slinging a +long gold watch-chain over her head and festooning it upon her ample +bosom: "Did you meet Pappy?" she continued, as her daughter's steps +drew near. + +"I did to be sure," returned Miss Letitia, coming into her mother's +room and flinging herself into an armchair, "when I was crossing the +bridge it was. He roared to me to hurry you and Hannah. Holy Mary +Joseph! How stiff I am! That old horn on the saddle has the right leg +cut off me!" + +"Well, never mind your legs now," replied Mrs. Mangan, peremptorily, +"what I want to know is what sort is this young man that Pappy's +bringing in on top of us? In God's name, why couldn't he be let go +home to his own?" + +"'Young man' is it!" retorted Tishy; "he's nothing but a boy at +school, and a cross boy too! Such beating of his pony as he had when +he wouldn't jump for him! Didn't I try and make poor Zoe go before +him, and th' eye he cast at her! I thought he'd beat me, too!" + +"Oh, and is a boy all he is then?" said Mrs. Mangan, with relief in +her voice: "you'd think by the work your father had 'twas the Lord +Leftenant was in it! Run away now, Tishy, like a good girl, and get +those clothes off you, and help Hannah with Barty's room. Boy or man +or whatever he is, he must have a bed under him!" + +It was a very deplorable boy who presently arrived at No. 6, The Mall, +Cluhir, and was practically lifted off the car by the Big Doctor. +Francis Aloysius Mangan had many aspects of character of an +undesirable kind, but they were linked with one virtue, the Irish +gift, of a good-natured heart. With his enormous thick hands, that +made Larry think of a tiger's paws, he undressed the boy as cleverly +and gently as he had set the broken bones of his wrist. Mrs. Mangan +and Hannah had not failed; the soup and the jars were, as the latter +authority had pronounced, "as hot as love," similarly passioned was +the ardour of the whisky-punch, with which the proceedings had opened. +Combined with a subsequent sleeping-draught, it conferred the boon of +sleep, and for some hours, at all events, Larry forgot his +recently-acquired knowledge of what pain was. But not for many hours. +In the long darkness of the winter morning he lay with a fast mounting +temperature, while he made the discovery, common to all in his case, +that upon the particular bone that has been broken, the entire +existence pivots. And, in addition to the broken bone, by the time +that Miss Frederica had driven in from Coppinger's Court, there was +but little doubt that what Dr. Mangan called, lightly, "a touch of +pneumonia," would keep young Mr. Coppinger in Barty's room for a time +unspecified. + +Miss Frederica drove home again in a seriously perturbed frame of +mind, and with indignation against the decrees of Providence hot +within her. + +"I wired for a nurse for him!" she said to Lady Isabel, "I could not +plant myself upon them! It's all _most_ uncomfortable and +unavoidable. Of course they've been extremely kind--" + +At the back of Miss Coppinger's mind was the wish, that she trampled +on whenever it stirred, that the Mangans had been less unexceptionally +kind and Good Samaritan-like. "Such an obligation!" she groaned; +"they've turned their own son out of the house to make room for Larry! +But oh, my dear Isabel, if you could imagine what the house is like! +The untidiness! The dirt! Of course they're unspeakably kind, and Dr. +Mangan is certainly very clever, and has managed Larry wonderfully," +went on Frederica, repenting her of her evil speaking, "and I must say +I can't help liking Mrs. Mangan, but the girl--!" Miss Coppinger +shut her mouth so tightly that her lips became thin, white lines. +"Keep the door of your lips" was a text which she had in her youth +illuminated for herself. She often found that nothing save a sudden +and violent slam would keep that door shut, and, to do her justice, +the slams, when the conversation turned on the Mangan household, were +both frequent and violent. + +This was later, when Larry was getting better, and when his aunt had +begun to find the daily drive to Cluhir something of a strain. It was +not until he was practically convalescent that he was permitted to +receive other visitors. Even the daughter of the house, and that +unknown son, into whose bedroom he had been thrust, were, for him, +beneath the surface, and their presence only inferential. Barty was +domiciled at a friend's, and Miss Tishy held aloof, the hushed voices, +and general restraint imposed by illness, being not at all to her +taste. Lady Isabel came once, with his aunt, and Christian crept shyly +in behind them. Christian was wont to be silent in the presence of her +elders. That great and admirable maxim, once widely instilled into the +young, whose purport is that children should seldom be seen and never +heard, had early been accepted by Christian, without resentment, even, +as she grew older, with gratitude. Having diffidently taken Larry's +listless and pallid paw, she had slipped into the background, and +waited silently, while her eager brain absorbed and stored every +detail for future meditation. Long after Larry had lightly forgotten +all save the large facts of his illness and incarceration, Christian +could describe the Pope, whose highly-coloured presentment beatified +(rather than beautified) the wall over Larry's bed, and could imitate, +with the accuracy of a phonograph, the voice of Mrs. Mangan, as she +issued her opinions on the state of the weather to her distinguished +visitors. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +The "touch of pneumonia," prophesied by Dr. Mangan, had proved to be a +sufficiently emphatic one. Larry's recovery was slow, and during his +languid convalescence, he found himself becoming sincerely attached to +the Big Doctor and Mrs. Mangan, and their high place in his affections +was shared by the nurse provided by Miss Coppinger. The bond of a +common faith was one that, at this stage of his development, had but +little appeal to Larry, but he was, at all events, spared any +possibility of suffering from the feelings of sub-friction, if not of +antagonism, that inevitably stirred in his aunt's breast, if she found +herself brought into relation closer than that of employer and +employed with those of the older creed. + +His sense of beauty, now beginning to acquire consciousness, and +sorely afflicted by the decorative scheme that had been adopted in +Barty's bedroom, found solace in the faces of these two women. Even +the lazy consideration of the contrast between their types, was a +comfort to Larry, and distracted his mind from the wall-paper (which +suggested the contents of Dr. Mangan's surgery, rhubarb, and +mustard-leaves predominating), and from Barty's taste in art, which in +its sacred and profane aspects was alike deplorable. + +Nurse Brennan, slight and fair, with the clearest of blue eyes, and a +Dresden china complexion--Larry was already artist enough to study and +adore the shadow of her white coif, with its subtle, reflected lights, +on her pink, rose-leaf cheek--and Mrs. Mangan, just a little +over-blown, but heavily, darkly handsome, with deep-lidded shadowy +eyes, and--as Master Coppinger pleased himself by discovering--a +slight suggestion of a luxurious Chesterfield sofa, upholstered in +rich cream velvet. When he was getting better, and the rigours of the +sick room were relaxing, these two provided him with interest and +entertainment of which they were delightfully unaware. + +"Well, and what will I give him for his dinner to-day, +Norrse?"--(impossible to persuade the English alphabet to disclose +Mrs. Mangan's pronunciation of this word)--his hostess would say, +drifting largely into Larry's room, and seating herself on the side of +his bed. + +"Don't be making an invalid of him at all, Mrs. Mangan!" Nurse Brennan +would rejoin briskly; "I'm just telling him I'd be sorry to get a +thump from that old wrist of his, he and the Doctor think so much +about! And he hasn't as much as a point of temperature those three +days!" + +"Oh, I say, Nurse!" Larry would protest, "then why won't you let me +get up?" + +"Be quite now"--(in Ireland the "e" in "quiet" is not infrequently +thus transposed)--"and don't be bothering me, like a good child!" +Nurse would reply, with a sidelong flash of her charming eyes, a +recognition of Larry's age and sex that atoned for the opprobrious +epithet. + +"Would he like a bit of fish now? I'm going down the town, and I might +meet one of the women in from Broadhaven." Thus Mrs. Mangan, +coaxingly. + +"Oh, Mrs. Mangan, please don't bother!" says Larry. + +"Ah, no bother at all! Sure I was going down anyway to the chapel to +get a sup of holy water. I declare the house is bone dry! Not a drop +in it!" + +After dreary winter mornings spent in reading, by the light of a +misplaced window, or age-long afternoons, drowsed through in that +torpor, mental as well as physical, that overwhelms the victim of a +prolonged sojourn in bed, Larry used to find himself looking forward +to the conversations between Nurse Brennan and Mrs. Mangan that arose +at tea-time, and followed, stimulated by the early darkness of +January, in the firelight; the southern voices rising and falling like +the flickering flames, becoming soon self-engrossed, and forgetful of +the silent listener in the bed. Sometimes sleep would lap him in slow, +stealthy peace, and the voices would die away, or come intermittently, +as the sound of a band marching through a town fades and recurs at the +end of a street. But without being aware of it, he was absorbing +knowledge, learning a new point of view, breathing a new atmosphere +that was to influence him more deeply than he could have any +conception was possible. + +One evening the talk fell on the congenial topic of illness, doctors +and patients, nurses and nuns, all spinning in the many-coloured +whirlpool of talk, now one and now another cresting the changing wave. +The fact that Larry was of their own religion, counterbalanced his +belonging to an alien class, and if their consciences sometimes hinted +at a lack of discretion, they quieted them with the assurance that +"the poor child was asleep!" + +"Ah, the nuns are wonderful!" said Mrs. Mangan, languishingly. "Look +how lovely they have the Workhouse Infirmary! I was taking some +flowers to Reverend Mother, and she was telling me what a beautiful +death old Catherine Macsweeny made. Reverend Mother rained tears when +she told me." + +Nurse Brennan sniffed. + +"Reverend Mother's a sweet woman, and the nuns are very attentive when +a person'd be dying, but indeed Mrs. Mangan, if you ask _me_, I'd +say 'twas the only time they were much use to their patients! Up at +that infirmary what have patients at night to look after them only an +old inmate, and she 'wanting' maybe!" + +Larry began to giggle, and was moved to try his wit. + +"Nurse! What's the difference between a stale mate and an old inmate? +And what does it want?" + +"It wants the very same as yourself--brains!" returned Nurse, swiftly. +"Now may be!" She wagged her head at him triumphantly, turning aside +to hide the smile of victory, and Larry thought how lovely was her +profile, as the firelight etched it in incandescent lines on the smoky +background. + +"Well, indeed, the Poor have a deal to put up with!" said Mrs. Mangan, +lazily, leaning back in her basket-chair, with her big grey cat +purring like an aeroplane engine on her knee. "The Doctor says no one +but himself knows the way he's dragged all over the country, patching +up after some of them young fellows that get dispensaries before +they're fit to doctor the cat!" + +The reformer, that underlay the artist in Larry, awoke. + +"But, Mrs. Mangan," he said, hotly, sitting up in bed, and glaring +into the gloom at Mrs. Mangan's half-seen face, "why do they give +dispensaries to chaps that can't doctor a cat?" + +"Because their fathers can spend four or five hundred pounds to buy +votes!" returned Mrs. Mangan, laughing at him. "Is that news to you? +Lie down child, and don't be looking at me like that! _I_ haven't +a vote to sell!" + +Larry subsided with vague splutterings. Nurse came to his bedside and +smoothed the clothes. + +"Listen to me now," she said impressively, "and _I'll_ tell you +something to make you angry, if you like!" + +She leaned against the foot of the bed, with her hands in the pockets +of her apron, looking down at him. "I was in charge of th' infirmary +at Mellifont one time, and late one evening a young farm-boy was +brought in to me with a dislocated foot and a 'Pott's Fracture'--" + +"In the name o' God, what's that?" enquired Mrs. Mangan. + +"Fracture of the fibula, but the case I'm speaking of had the two +bones broken at the ankle," explained Nurse Brennan, in her most +professional manner; "sure I thought anyone'd know that! And I can +tell you," she leaned towards Larry, striking the palm of her left +hand with her little clenched right fist, as if to hammer the words +into him, "I can assure _you_, that as bad as you thought you +were, you don't know what pain _is_ beside what that boy +suffered! Well, I sent for the doctor--a young brat of a fella that +hadn't but just left college. 'He'll want an anaesthetic,' says he, +'I'll send down for Doctor ----' (I'll not tell you his name--Smith, +I'll call him!) 'Do you give him some brandy, nurse,' says he, 'Dr. +Smith'll be here soon.' Sure enough he was, and glad I was to see him, +for the patient was suffering greatly, and the leg swelling every +minyute. It was a long ward he was in, and no one at all in it but +himself. At the far end there was a table and a lamp, and down at the +table me gentlemen sat, and commenced to talk." + +Nurse Brennan paused, and Mrs. Mangan gave the fire a well-directed +poke, that set the flames branching upwards. The tale was resumed, in +those cool and equable tones that express a more perfected indignation +than any heat or haste could convey. + +"Well, that was nine o'clock, and they talked there for two hours, and +I giving the patient brandy, and expecting every minyute he'd +collapse. And what do you suppose they were talking about? Fighting +they were! Disputing which of them would perform the operation, and +which would administer the chloroform!" + +Mrs. Mangan laughed lightly, and said: "I wouldn't at all doubt it!" + +"Impossible!" exclaimed Larry. + +"Not a bit impossible!" said Nurse Brennan, "and how d'ye think they +settled it in the end? They arranged one of them would begin th' +operation and go on for five minutes, and then he should stop and give +the anaesthetic, and the other would go on with the leg! Oh, it's the +case, I assure you! It was twelve o'clock at night before they were +done!" + +She paused, laughing a little at the hot questions with which Larry +assailed her, but he could see the unshed tears gleaming in her eyes. +"I was summoned to a private case next day; I don't know what happened +to the unfortunate poor creature of a patient." + +"A stiff leg he has, I'll be bound!" said Mrs. Mangan. + +Larry lay silent. He saw it all. The long, dark ward, the white angel +figure (he thought, romantically) bending over the tortured creature +on the bed, and, far away, the pool of yellow light and in it those +two--he sought in vain for adjectives to express what he thought of +Dr. I'll-not-tell-you-his-name, and his young colleague. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +In the years that followed, "Larry's cads" came to be, for the young +Talbot-Lowrys, a convenient designation for the friends into whose +bosom Providence had seen fit to fling their cousin. But Larry never +either approved or accepted it. He was entirely pleased with his new +friends, and especially with that son of the house whose position he +had usurped, Mr. Bartholomew Mangan. + +Barty was a lengthy, languid, gentle youth, of nearly nineteen, +darkly, pallidly handsome, sweet natured, and slovenly, like his +mother, and, unlike her, poetical, idealistic, unpractical, shy, and +self-conscious. He was, at this period, working in the office of one +of the two solicitors, who, with the aid of a branch of a bank, a +Petty Sessions Court, and the imposing, plate-glass bow-windows of +Hallinan's hotel, enabled Cluhir to convince itself of its status as a +town. Further proof of the civic importance of Cluhir was found in the +existence of a debating club of very advanced political views among +its young men, of which Barty Mangan was secretary. Its membership, if +small, was select, since its Republican principles did not compel it +to admit to its privileges shop-assistants, or artisans, while they +automatically excluded members of the class that were usually referred +to in the club discussions as "Carrion Crows," or if the orator's mood +was mild, "the garrison." In Ireland the attitude of mind that is +termed, alternately, Disloyalty or Patriotism, is largely a matter of +class, and Barty Mangan's introduction of Master St. Lawrence +Coppinger, as an honorary member of the club, partook of the nature of +a shock to those of the faithful who were present at his first +appearance in the club room, a severely plain apartment, that offered +no impediment in the matter of luxury to high thinking. But the +faithful of the "Sons of Emmet" Club had nothing to fear from this +half-fledged young Carrion Crow. The English school to which Larry had +been sent had dulled the fire lit by the poems of The Spirit of the +Nation, but it had not extinguished it. It had flickered for a time, +during which Hunting had superseded Patriotism, and Mr. Jorrocks had +reigned alone; but the oratory of the Sons of Emmet, to which Larry +was now privileged to listen, had had the effect of restoring to life +and vigour the long-neglected, half-forgotten tenets of the +Companionage of Finn. Larry's store of enthusiasm was quite equal to +supplying motive power for running two engines; hunting still held its +own, and after a club debate in which he had taken an energetic part, +even the most exclusive of the Sons of Emmet admitted that Barty's +importation was worthy of the privilege that had been extended to him. + +A spell of cold weather had compelled a postponement of Larry's return +to his own home. When snow and frost visit a country unused to their +attentions, they are treated with a respect that they do not receive +elsewhere. The Doctor's orders were strict, and Larry spent the last +days of his stay at No. 6, The Mall, seated in semi-invalid state by +the dining-room fire, occupied, mainly, in the consumption of +literature provided by his new friend, Mr. Barty Mangan, that +consisted of poems, books, and pamphlets of precisely that shade of +politics of which his family most thoroughly disapproved, and +absorbing what would be, in their opinion, the most entirely poisonous +points of view. + +The Big Doctor, smoking a comfortable evening pipe over the fire, +would join in the discussions between his son and his visitor, +offering just as much opposition to Larry's revolutionary flights as +was stimulating, and flattering his sense of youth and daring. + +"We mustn't send him back to his auntie too much of a rebel +altogether!" The Doctor would say, grinning at the enthusiast with his +pipe wedged under a tooth; "isn't it good enough for you to be a poor +decent old Nationalist like myself? I'm sure there's no one would +disapprove of _me_, is there, Annie?" + +"Don't be too sure of that at all!" Mrs. Mangan would reply +coquettishly, trying to look as if she did not agree with him; "wait +till his auntie hears the notions Larry's taking up with, and she'll +think we're all the worst in the world! And the Major! The Major'll go +cracked-mad!" + +"It doesn't matter where he goes!" says Larry, defiantly, "I've had +these 'notions,' as you call them, for ages and ages!" + +"Ah, God help you, child!" Mrs. Mangan would probably say, "keep quiet +now, till I get you a glass of hot milk!" + +Politics did not form the only point of contact that had been +established between Larry and the Mangan household. Since his +promotion to comparative convalescence, Tishy, daughter of the house, +had entered more actively into his scheme of life, and the point of +entrance was music. Some divergence in view as to music is more easily +condoned, on both sides, than in the other realms of the spirit. It +matters not from how far countries the travellers may come, or how +widely sundered may be their ideals, there are rest-houses at which +they can draw rein and find agreement. One of these, possibly the +greatest of them, is folk song. Ireland, whose head is ever turned +over her shoulder, looking to the past, has, in her folk song, at +least, reason and justification for her preoccupation with what has +been in her music, rather than with what is, or is to come. It is +difficult to reconcile the eternal beauty of traditional Irish melody +with the lack of musical interest and feeling that distinguishes the +mass of modern Irish life. But, here and there, a string of the harp +that has hung, mute, on Tara's walls for so many centuries, utters a +sigh of sweet sound, and at Number 6, The Mall, Cluhir, the soul of +music had still some power of inspiration. + +This is, perhaps, a rather elaborate method of intimating that Dr. +Mangan played the violin, moderately as to technique, but soundly as +to intonation, and that he and his family sang, as a quartet, not only +at charity concerts, but also for their own pleasure, in their own +home. Music, more than the other arts, demands sympathy, and an +audience. In Larry, the Mangan Quartet recognised that both +requirements were supplied, together with a glorifying enthusiasm of +appreciation--though this they scarcely recognised--that gilded for +him their achievements, as the firelight had edged the profile of +Nurse Brennan with pure gold. Larry, it has already been said, had the +artistic temperament; he had also a generous heart, and he was of an +age when appreciation is spontaneous, and criticism is either unborn, +or is only an echo of some maturer mind. Therefore, as he lay on the +Mangan blue rep-covered drawing-room sofa, with a satin cushion +adorned with Tishy's conception of roses, in water-colour, under his +head, while pretty Nurse Brennan gently massaged his wrist, and the +Mangan Quartet warbled: "O, believe me if all those endearing young +charms," or "When thro' life unblest we rove," Larry passed into +ecstasy, that, had he been one degree less of a schoolboy, might have +been exhaled in tears; even as the sun draws water from the sea, in a +mist of glory, and returns it to the world again in rain. + +Tishy was accompanist, and sang alto; her mother, who knew nothing of +notation, and sang by ear, sang treble; Barty had a supple and +pleasing tenor, and the Doctor possessed a solemn bass, deep and dark +as a thundercloud, yet mellow as the hum of a hive of honey-bees on a +summer morning; a rare voice and a beautiful one, that had its +counterpart in the contralto that already, at sixteen and a half, had +given Tishy power and distinction among her fellows. + +At this time, Miss Letitia Mangan's views, and those of her parents, +as to her future, musical or otherwise, were entirely divergent. Hers +held as central figure a certain medical student, with an incipient +red moustache, and a command of boxes of chocolate that was +bewildering to those acquainted with his income. Quite other were Dr. +Mangan's intentions with regard to his daughter, but he was satisfied +to keep them out of sight; he was aware that, in all solid buildings, +the deeper and farther out of sight the foundation, the more assured +is the result. + +It is possible that the idea of a farewell entertainment in Larry's +honour emanated from the Big Doctor; if so, he had erased his tracks +very thoroughly, and it was regarded by Mrs. Mangan's intimates as a +final brandishing of her trophy before she was forced to relinquish +it. Larry was indisputably a trophy, and Heaven was considered to have +exercised a very undue discrimination in Mrs. Mangan's favour when it +threw him into her house and her hands. It was a very select party, +only a score or so of boys and girls, with the elders appertaining to +them. Nurse Brennan had departed, taking with her Larry's young +affections, and a gift, costly and superfluous, of a silver-mounted +mirror, which was accompanied by some chaste lines, expressive of +Master Coppinger's desire to share its privileges, whose composition +had kept him happy throughout a long, wet afternoon. + +The party, having opened with lemonade, tea and innumerable cakes, +moved on through "a little music," (contributed exclusively by the +Mangan Quartet) to games. Larry, afflicted by the discovery that he +had, during his illness, outgrown his evening clothes, found himself +fated to do conspicuous things in the centre of a space, cleared as +for a prize-fight, in the Mangan drawing-room. Problems in connection +with a ship that came from China. Exhausting efforts in guessing +absurdities, that usually necessitated withdrawal to the landing +outside the door with a giggling schoolgirl, and collaboration with +her in a code of complicated signals. And, blackest feature of all, +mistakes in any of these arduous matters entailed "forfeits," and the +process entitled "paying the forfeits," meant a concentration of +attention upon a young gentleman, conscious to agony of the fact that +his trousers left his ankle-bones unshielded from the public gaze. + +It was sufficiently distressing to lie at full length on the carpet, +and declare oneself to be the length of a looby, and the breadth of a +booby, but what was that as compared with sitting, blindfolded, on a +chair, and guessing, among many kisses, which had been bestowed by +"the girl he loved best?" As if he loved any of them! These pert and +blowsy schoolgirls, with hideous voices, and arrogant curls, or +crimped lion-manes of aggressive hair! He, with "his heart set all +upon a snowy coif!" (as he chose to wrest Mr. Yeats' line to his own +purposes). + +It was singular in how many of these exercises, of which the greater +number included kissing, he found himself involved with Tishy Mangan. +Tishy was in a bad temper. The red-headed medical student had not been +honoured with an invitation. Dr. Mangan had struck his name from the +list of guests saying that they had enough without him, and Tishy knew +her father too well to protest. Dr. Mangan was in the habit of saying +that he always left all household affairs "in the hands of the +ladies." He did not add, as he might have done, that these hands lay +within his, and that their owners had long since realised that it was +advisable to respond to any indication of pressure. His daughter, +however, while she submitted to the inevitable, saw no reason why she +should deny herself the solace of sulking, nor of avenging herself of +his tyranny on "his fine pet," as she, in high indignation, described +Larry to herself. Master Coppinger might be a man of property and the +owner of Coppinger's Court, yes, or Dublin Castle, for all she cared! +Pappy might say what he liked, but _she_ wouldn't be bothered +with a boy like that! And there was Ned Cloherty--(this was the +medical student)--that she had as good as asked to come--and what +could she say to him now, she wondered? So Tishy sulked, and resented +the Hidden Hand, that so inevitably linked her with the owner of +Coppinger's Court, as much as did that man of property himself. + +The evening wore on; with romping, with screaming, with enormous +consumption of various foods, and with an ever-heightening +temperature, that was specially noticeable among those seniors who had +not disdained the brew of punch that had coincided with the +announcement of midnight, made, with maddening deliberation, by Mrs. +Mangan's cuckoo-clock. The usual delirium of cracker-head-dresses had +befallen the company. Larry, decorated with a dunce's cap, placed upon +his yellow head by a jovial matron, found himself fated, by a final +effort of penalising fancy on the part of another matron, to select "a +young lady," to conduct her to the topmost step of the staircase, and +there, on his knees, to kiss either her shoe-buckle or her lips; +"whichever he likes best!" decreed the matron, archly. + +It is strange how the reserves and reticences of childhood, the things +that offend, the things that bring agony, are forgotten by so many of +those who have left childhood behind. In extenuation of this lively +and kindly lady, it may be said that the manners and customs of her +early youth were not those to which Larry was habituated. Yet, one +might have thought that a glance at Larry's face would have sufficed +to induce Rhadamanthus himself to remit the penalty. Not so Mrs. +Whelply, the arbitrator. + +"Oh, look at the pout on him! What a naughty boy! If you don't take +care, I'll put a worse task on you!" + +Larry, oblivious of the dunce's cap, feeling himself in the grip of a +social machine that was too strong for him, looked round upon the +company. Hot, pink faces, shining eyes and teeth, Moenad hair, on all +sides. Then he caught sight of Tishy's eyes, scornful and amused, +regarding him as he stood irresolute, and his spirit responded to the +spur of contempt. He crossed the open space of floor to where she was +seated on the blue rep sofa, took off the dunce's cap with a flourish, +and, with a low bow, offered her his arm. + +A chorus of approval, weighted by the Big Doctor's big laugh, greeted +the action. Tishy, cornered, accepted the arm, the door was swung open +for them, and ostentatiously slammed behind them. + +Larry, silent, and very angry, mounted the stairs quickly, and Tishy +perforce, her hand gripped by his elbow, followed him. At the highest +step but one, Larry stood aside, and Tishy ascended, and turning, +faced him from the top. They looked at each other for a moment in +silence. Both were furiously angry, resenting the compulsion that had +forced them into an absurd position. + +Then Tishy said insolently: "Well! Which will you have? My shoe-buckle +or my lips? Take your choice!" + +She poked her foot out over the edge of the step confidently. + +A spark shot from Larry's angry heart to his blue eyes. He looked up +at Tishy, and something suddenly masterful awoke in him. Confound her! +He wouldn't have her laughing at him! + +"I'll have your lips, please!" he said, mounting to the step beside +her. + +With schoolboy roughness he flung his arm round her shoulders. She was +a little taller than he, but she did not withdraw herself; she was +curiously aware that her point of view was changing. She looked for an +instant in his eyes, and then she laid her lips on his. + +Larry found, with surprise, that they returned the pressure of his own +as he kissed her. The spark that had been in his eyes seemed to have +flown to his lips, and met another spark in hers. + +There was a moment of silence. Larry found himself a little out of +breath, and somehow bewildered. There was more in it than he thought. +He didn't quite know what to do next. + +"Thank you very much," he said, stiffly, and offered his arm. + +In silence they walked down the stairs again. The piano had begun, and +"Sir Roger de Coverley" was being thundered forth. At the door they +met the Doctor. Larry released Tishy's arm. + +"If you don't mind," he said to the Doctor, "I think I'll go up to +bed. I'm tired." + +After he had got to his room he shook himself, much as a dog renews +its vitality by shaking its ears. Then he poured some water into the +basin and washed his hot face, scrubbing his lips with the sponge. + +Yet, to his infinite annoyance, he seemed still to feel the pressure +of Tishy's warm mouth on his. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +It is, or should be, superfluous to say that Miss Frederica Coppinger +viewed with disfavour, that was the more poignant for its +helplessness, Larry's adoption and assimilation by the Mangan family. + +"Disastrous!" she said in a tragic voice, to the Rector of Knockceoil +parish. "If he were a Protestant it wouldn't matter so much; but, as +things are, for _him_ to be thrown among these second-rate, +Nationalistic, Roman Catholics--!" + +The intensity of Miss Coppinger's emotions silenced him. She had +indeed beaten her biggest drum, and she knew it. + +The Rector, the Reverend Charles Fetherston, nodded his head with +solemnity, and made a conscientious effort to remember what she was +speaking of. He was not much in the habit of attending to what was +said to him, finding his own thoughts more interesting than those of +his parishioners. The parishioners, being aware of this peculiarity, +put it down, very naturally, to eccentricity for which he was rather +to be pitied than condemned, and his popularity was in no way abated +by it. Mr. Fetherston was unmarried, in age about sixty; tall, stout, +red-faced, of good family, a noted woodcock shot and salmon fisher, a +carpenter, and an incessant pipe-smoker. These being his leading +gifts, it will probably, and with accuracy, be surmised by persons +conversant with the Irish Church, that he was a survival of its +earliest days, when it was still an avocation suitable for gentlemen, +and one in which they could indulge without any taint of +professionalism being laid to their charge. He was immensely respected +and admired by the poor people of the parish (none of whom were +included in his small and well-to-do congregation), the fact that he +was what is known as "old stock," giving him a prestige among the +poorer Roman Catholics, that they would have denied to St. Peter. He +shared with Major Talbot-Lowry the position of consultant in feuds, +and relieving officer in distress, and, being rich, liberal, easily +bored, and not particularly sympathetic to affliction, he was +accustomed to stanch the flow of tears and talk alike, with a form of +solace that rarely failed to meet the case, and was always acceptable. +With Miss Coppinger, he felt, regretfully, that five shillings could +in no way be brought to bear upon her problem, and with an effort he +withdrew his mind from a new hinge that he thought of fitting to a +garden-gate, and applied it to Larry. + +"How old is the boy now? Sixteen last October? He doesn't look as +much--you'll see he'll outgrow all that nonsense of Nationalism! Send +him to Oxford as soon as you can. He'll soon get hold of some other +tomfoolery there, and forget this. Seven devils worse than the first, +in fact!" + +The Reverend Charles laughed, wheezily, and began, automatically, to +fill a pipe, an indication of a change of mental outlook. + +"Worse?" cried Miss Frederica, ardently; "no indeed, Mr. Fetherston! +Better! Far better! _Any_thing is preferable to this--this +Second-rate Sedition!" + +When Frederica perorated, and this remark partook of the nature of +peroration, it was as though she took a header into deep water. By the +time she had again risen to the surface of her emotions, the Reverend +Charles Fetherston had returned to the hinge of the garden-gate, and +Miss Coppinger, knowing her man, made no attempt to recall him. She +had a very special regard for her rector, of a complex sort that is +not quite easy to define. There was veneration in it, the veneration +that was inculcated in her youth for the clergy; there was the +compassion that many capable and self-confident women bestow upon any +man to whom Providence has denied a feminine protector; there was a +regretful pity for his shortcomings--(but half-acknowledged, even to +herself)--as a Minister of the Word, counterbalanced by respect for +his worldly wisdom; above all, there was the deep, peculiar interest +that was excited in her by any clergyman, merely in virtue of his +office, a person whose trade it was to occupy himself with the art and +practice of religion, which was a subject that had, quite apart from +its spiritual side, the same appeal for her that the art and practice +of the theatre has for many others. (It is hard to imagine any simile +that would have shocked Frederica more than this; in all her years of +strenuous, straightforward life, she had never, as she would have +said, set foot in a theatre.) + +Frederica had been born at Coppinger's Court, and she had passed her +childhood there, but her youth had been spent in Dublin, in the hot +heart of a parish devoted to good works, and to a pastor whose power +and authority was in no degree less absolute than that of any of the +"Romish priests" whom he so heartily denounced. She was brought up in +that school of Irish Low Church Protestantism that makes more severe +demands upon submission and credulity than any other, and yet more +fiercely arraigns other creeds on those special counts. It is quite +arguable that Irish people, like the Israelites who so ardently +desired a king, enjoy and thrive under religious oppression, and it is +beyond dispute that among the oppressed, of both the rival creeds, are +saints whose saintliness has gained force from the systems to which +they have given their allegiance. To Frederica the practice of her +cult both inwardly in her heart, and outwardly in the work of St. +Matthew's Parish, was the mainspring of her existence. It was also her +pastime. She would analyse a sermon, as Dick Lowry would discuss a +run, and with the same eager enjoyment. She assented with enthusiasm +to the Doctrine of Eternal Damnation, and a gentler-hearted creature +than she never lived. She would have gone to the stake for the Verbal +Inspiration of the Bible; she was as convinced that the task of +Creation was completed in a week, as she was that she paid the +Coppinger's Court workmen for six days' work every Saturday evening. +In short, the good Frederica was a survival of an earlier and more +earnest period, and her religious beliefs were only comparable, in +their sincerity and simplicity, with those of the Roman Catholic poor +people, whose spiritual prospects were to her no less black +(theoretically) than were hers to them. + +Those who know Ireland will have no difficulty in believing that Miss +Coppinger had no warmer sympathisers in her feelings concerning Larry +and the Mangan household than the Coppinger's Court retainers, despite +the fact that none of them were of her communion, nor did they share +her political views. And no less will those who know Ireland, +recognise that in the Irish countryside it is the extremes that touch, +and that there is a sympathy and understanding between the uppermost +and the lowest strata of Irish social life, which is not extended, by +either side, to the intervening one. Thus, it was that Frederica +could, and did converse with her work-people and her peasant +neighbours, with a freedom and an implicit confidence in their good +breeding, that it is to be feared she was incapable of extending to +Larry's new acquaintances in Cluhir. Possibly the outdoor life, and +the mutual engrossment in outdoor affairs, explain, in some degree, +this sympathy, but at the root of it is the certainty on both sides, +that the well-bred, even the chivalrous point of view, will govern +their intercourse. + +It may seem somewhat excessive to use the word chivalry in connection +with Mrs. Twomey, the Coppinger's Court dairy-woman. Yet, I dare to +say that as great a soul filled the four feet four inches that +comprised her excessively plain little person, as ever inspired +warrior or fighting queen in the brave days of old. Bred and born +under the Talbot-Lowrys, she had crossed the river when she married +one of the Coppinger's Court workmen, and for close on thirty-five +years she had milked the cows and ruled the dairy according to her own +methods, which were as rigorous as they were remarkable, and altered +not with modern enlightenment, or conformed with hygienic laws. Her +husband was a feeble creature, whose sole claim to distinction was his +inability to speak English. At the time that "The Family," (which is, +say, Frederica and Larry) returned, he had become quite blind, and he +passed a cloistered existence in a dark corner of his little cottage, +sitting, with his hat always upon his head, a being seemingly as +withdrawn from the current of life as one of the smoky brown and white +china dogs on the shelf above the wide hearth. + +The legend ran that when he was young, a marriage had been arranged +for him. On the appointed wedding-day he had gone to the chapel, the +priest was there, and the wedding-guests, but no bride came. Michael +Twomey therefore, after a fruitless exercise of patience, left the +chapel in deep wrath and humiliation, and proceeded to walk home +again. On the road he was faced by a string of laughing girls, and +among them there was little Mary Driscoll. Mary had then, no doubt, +such grace as youth can give, and that she had, at least, good teeth, +was obvious to the disgruntled Michael Twomey, as she was grinning at +him from ear to ear. Also, possibly, his sight may not even then have +been of the best. Be that as it may, Michael caught at Mary's arm. + +"Come on to the chapel, Mary!" he shouted at her, in the Irish that +was a more common speech in those days than it is now; "The priest is +there yet, and the money is in my pocket. I'll marry you!" + +Michael had made a luckier hit than he knew. Little Mary Driscoll +recognised the sporting quality of the suggestion, and being a girl of +spirit acceded to it. + +Mary had been to America. She was one of the many of her class who put +forth fearlessly for the United States, adventuring upon the unknown +without any of the qualms that would beset them were the bourne +London, or even one of the cities of their native land. Wasn't Mary's +mother's sisther's daughter, and Maggie Brian from Tullagh, and the +dear knows how many more cousins and neighbours, before her in it? +Didn't her brother that was marrit in it, send her her ticket, and +wasn't there good money to be airned in it? + +These queries, that, as may be seen by anyone with half an eye, +answered themselves, having been propounded by little Mary Driscoll, +she, roaring crying, and keened by all her relatives to the +coach-door--no railway being within thirty miles of her home--departed +to America, and was swallowed up by "Boyshton" for the space of five +years, during the passage of which, since she could neither read nor +write, no communication passed between her and her parents, save only +the postal orders that, through an intermediary, she unfailingly sent +them. Then there was a month that the postal order came not, and while +the old father and mother were wondering was Mary dead, or what ailed +her, Mary walked in, uglier than ever in her Boyshton clothes, and it +was gloriously realised that not only was not Mary dead at all, but +that she had as much saved as would bury the old people, or maybe +marry herself. + +Mary had not enjoyed America. She wouldn't get her health in it, she +said. + +("Ye wouldn't see a fat face or a red cheek on one o' thim that comes +back," assented Mary's mother); and for as little as she was, Mary +continued, she'd rather bring her bones home with herself to +Cunnock-a-Ceoil. (A cryptic phrase signifying that though she +recognised, humorously, her own unworthiness, she still attached +sufficient importance to her person to wish to bestow it upon the +place of her birth.) Not long after her return and restoration to +health, the episode of her marriage had occurred, and she had settled +down into the soil of Ireland again, with, possibly, a slightly +increased freedom of manner, but, saving this, with no more token on +her of her dash into the new world, than has the little fish that lies +and pants on the river bank for a moment, before the angler +contemptuously chucks him into the stream again. + +Michael and Mary Twomey had been on the staff of Coppinger's Court for +a full thirty years when, in the fullness of time, Frederica returned +to her ancient home, bringing with her the young heir to it, and all +its accessory tenanted lands. Not Green Dragon or The Norreys +King-at-Arms, or any other pontiff of pedigrees, could attach a higher +importance to gentle blood than did little elderly Mary Twomey, +elderly, but still as indomitably nimble and resolute as when in +Frederica's childhood she would catch the donkey for her, and run +after it, belabouring it in its rider's interest, for half an +afternoon. + +In spite of the fact that Miss Coppinger's youth had been spent, +chiefly, in a town, the love of the country, ingrained during her +first years, was merely dormant, and it revived with her return to +Coppinger's Court. The garden, the farm, the hens, the cattle, the +dairy, were all interests to which she returned with that renewal of +early passion, that has in it the fervour of youth as well as the +depth of maturity. She read agricultural papers insatiably, and +believed all that she read, accepting the verbal inspiration of their +advertisements with the enthusiasm of her religious beliefs. She was a +doctrinaire farmer, and she applied to the garden, the farm and the +poultry-yard, the same zeal and intensity that had made her in earlier +days the backbone of committees, and the leading exponent of the godly +activities of St. Matthew's. She was regarded by the heretofore rulers +of these various provinces with a mixture of respect, contempt, and +apprehension. She was an incalculable force, with a predisposition +towards novelty, and novelty, especially if founded on theory, is +abhorrent to such as old Johnny Galvin the steward, or Peter Flood the +gardener, or, stiffest in her own conceit of all, Mrs. Twomey of the +dairy. + +"Master Larry's coming home from Cluhir tomorrow, Mary," Miss +Coppinger announced, with satisfaction, to the peculiar confection of +grey hair and black chenille net that represented the back of Mrs. +Twomey's head, her forehead being pressed against the side of the cow +that she was milking. + +"Thang-aade!" replied Mrs. Twomey fervently, expressing in this +concise form her gratitude to her Creator for what she considered to +be Larry's release from a very vile durance "He's long enough in it +already!" + +"The Doctor wouldn't let me move him any sooner," replied Miss +Coppinger, apologetically. + +"The divil doubt him, what a fool he'd be!" said Mrs. Twomey with a +bitter laugh. "Aren't they all sayin' as sure as gun is iron it's what +he wants that he'll see his daughter in Coppinger's Court before he +dies!" + +"What nonsense!" said Miss Coppinger, warmly; "I should like to know +who is saying it!" + +Mrs. Twomey, milking ceaselessly, slewed her head a little and looked +at her employer out of the corner of an eye as bright and as cunning +as a hen's, and said: "As rich as your Honour is, you couldn't put a +penny into the mouth of every man that's sayin' it!" + +"I'm surprised at you, Mary," said Frederica, indignantly, "You ought +to have more sense than to repeat such rubbish!" + +To this reproach, Mrs. Twomey responded with a long and jubilant crow +of laughter. + +"Yerra, gerr'l alive--!" she corrected herself quickly. "My lady +alive, I should say--sure a little thing like me'd tell lies as fast +as a hen'd pick peas!" + +The modesty, as well as the accuracy, of this statement silenced Miss +Coppinger for a moment. + +"Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" she resumed with much +severity. "It is amazing to me how a decent, respectable little woman +like you can not only tell lies, but boast of it!" + +"Ah ha! I'm the same owld three and fourpince, an' will be till I +die!" triumphed Mrs. Twomey, with another screech of laughter, +removing her tiny person, her milk-pail, and her stool from under the +cow. "An' I won't be long dyin'!" another screech; "an' it won't take +many to carry me to Cunnock-a-Ceoil Churchyard!" + +A final and prolonged burst of mirth succeeded this announcement, +during which the unrepentant Three and Fourpence swung the pail on to +the hook of the swinging-balance for weighing the milk that was Miss +Coppinger's latest and most detested innovation. + +"Look at that now what she has for you, Miss! Shixteen pints! An' I'll +engage I'll knock thirteen ounces o' butther out of it! That's the +little bracket cow that yourself and Johnny Galvin wanted to sell, an' +I withstood ye!" + +This was of the nature, jointly, of a counter-attack and of a truckle +to the system of milk-records, but Frederica heeded it not As a matter +of fact, she was still somewhat discomposed by the insinuations that +were more numerous than the pennies she was believed to possess. + +"I hope, Mary," she said, repressively, "that if you should hear any +more talk of that kind about Dr. Mangan, you will do your best to +contradict it. He has been extremely kind to Master Larry, and it +annoys me very much that such things should be said." + +Mrs. Twomey's supple mind was swift to realise that a change of +attitude was advisable. + +"Why then, upon my truth and body, I'd blame no one that wanted Master +Larry! That little fella is in tune with all the world!" she declared; +"but those people do be always gibbing and gabbing! Give them a smell, +and they're that suspeecious they'll do the rest! Sure I said to that +owld man below, Mikey Twomey"--thus dispassionately was Mrs. Twomey +wont to speak of her husband--"I says to him, that your Honour was +satisfied to leave Master Larry back in Cluhir till he'd be well agin. +They were all sayin' the child wouldn't be said by ye to come back! +Didn't I have to put the heighth o' the house o' curses to it before +he'd believe me!" + +"Intolerable nonsense!" said Frederica, hotly. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +People have said, retrospectively, that the rise of the Mangan family +dated from the fall of Larry Coppinger into the Feorish River. This +may, or may not have been the case but it is certain that Mrs. +Mangan's way through the world took at about this time an upward +trend, and one of the most perceptible ascending jerks was the result +of Lady Isabel Talbot-Lowry's Sale of Work. + +This function had been ordained with, for object, the provision of a +fund for the renovation of the parish church of Knock Ceoil, and was +obviously a matter without interest for persons of another +denomination. Lady Isabel, and Miss Coppinger, and others of their +friends and neighbours slaved at the provision of munitions for it, as +good women will slave at such enterprises, squandering energy on the +construction of those by-products of the rag-bag that wen specially +consecrated to charitable purposes by the ladies of their period. + +"No one will want to buy this rubbish," said Miss Coppinger, who never +tried to deceive even herself, "but people will have to spend their +money on something, and _we're_ not going to raffle bottles of +brandy--as they did at that R.C. Bazaar in Riverstown!" + +Frederica could be just, but when a question of religion intervened, +she found it hard to be generous. + +The Sale of Work took place during the September that followed the +winter of Larry's disaster, and it was indisputable that the Mangan +family contributed materially to its success. Mrs. Mangan was of a +class that is accustomed to get its money's worth, and was herself +known and respected as an able and inveterate haggler. Yet, at the +Mount Music Sale, she was content to hide her talent beneath +innumerable chair-backs and night-dress cases, purchased, +uncomplainingly, at the prices marked on them, and to permit the +contents of an apparently inexhaustible purse to flow in a golden +stream from stall to stall. Her family were no less in evidence, the +Big Doctor offering himself a cheerful victim on the shrine of +raffles, even attaching himself to Christian as a coadjutor in the +sale of tickets for the disposal of one of Rinka's latest progeny. +Mrs. Mangan's son and daughter, something subdued by unfamiliar +surroundings, were, on the disposal of the puppy-tickets, taken in +hand by their father, and were, with an eloquence that seemed meant +for a larger audience, made acquainted with the notable objects of the +house. + +"If I could get hold of your mother, now," the Big Doctor would say, +"I'd like her to see this," or "Look at that picture, Tishy! That's a +lovely woman! The Major's grandmother, I believe. We'll ask Miss +Judith--'pon my honour, it might have been done of herself!" + +Miss Judith, with a fruit and flower stall near the portrait in +question, coldly admitted the relationship, and ignored the question +of the likeness. Judith was of the age of intolerance; moreover, she +was at that moment in the act of selling a button-hole to Bill Kirby, +and the Doctor's enthusiasm was undesired. + +The little family party moved on, while Dr. Mangan, with the ease of +an _habitue_, indicated to his son and daughter the ancestral +portraits in the dining-room, the Cromwellian arms on the staircase, +the coats-of-arms, the Indian weapons, the foxes' masks in the hall. +The son and daughter received the information coldly. It was their +first introduction to the interior of Mount Music, and while Tishy was +filled with a great resolve to be impressed by nothing, Barty was +silenced by those tortures that unfamiliar surroundings have power to +inflict upon the shy. + +In his determination to instruct his young in all the possible objects +of interest, Dr. Mangan strolled away from the crowded scene of the +sale, and led them down the long passage, dedicated to sporting +prints, that led to the library. + +"There's a picture there that's worth seeing, of a Meeat Coppinger's +Court in the time of Larry's grandfather," he announced impressively, +as he opened the door. "The Talbot-Lowrys and the Coppingers were +always fine sports men--" + +A tall old screen stood between the door and the fireplace from behind +it a hunted voice said: + +"Who the devil's there now?" + +Dr. Mangan thought, complacently: "My diagnosis was correct!" Aloud he +said to his son and daughter, in a tone of hoarse consternation: "To +think of our blundering in on the Major like this! Here! Away now, the +pair of you!" + +He advanced from behind the screen. + +"Major! My most humble apologies! I never thought of you being here! I +was showing that boy and girl of mine some of your beautiful things." + +Major Talbot-Lowry was unlike his daughter Judith in many things, and +not least in his easy sufferance of those whom she, in youthful +arrogance, called cads. + +"Come in, Doctor, and have a cigar in peace," he said, hospitably, +putting on one side the novel he was reading. "I thought you were +Evans, or one of the maids, coming to bother me. This damned show has +turned the house upside down!" + +"Well, it seems a great success," said Dr. Mangan cordially. + +"Very good of you to come," responded his host, "more especially when +it's--er--it's--er--such a purely local affair--" + +Dr. Mangan understood that he was receiving the meed of religious +tolerance. + +"Well, Major," he said, expansively, "I lived long enough one time in +England to learn that we mustn't give in too much to the clerical +gentlemen! My own instinct is to be neighbourly, and to let my friends +mind their own religion." + +"Quite so, quite so," said Major Dick, magnanimously, forgetting, for +the moment, those epithets that, in his more heated moments, he was +accustomed to apply to the ministers of the Church to which he did not +belong. "Quite so, Doctor. I'm all for toleration, and let the parsons +fight it out among 'em! Busy men, like you and me, haven't time to +worry about these affairs--we've other things to think about!" He +stretched a long arm for a box of cigars, and handed it to his +visitor; "sit down for a bit. There's no hurry. The ladies can have it +all their own way for a while!" + +Dr. Mangan lowered his huge person into an armchair of suitable +proportions, and for some moments smoked his cigar in appreciative +silence. As a matter of fact, he was planning an approach to the +subject that had instigated his visit to the library, but he was in no +hurry to begin upon it, remembering that the longest way round is +often the shortest way home. + +"By the way, Major," he said, taking the cigar from his mouth, and +regarding it with affection, "did some one tell me that you were +looking for a farming horse?" + +"If they didn't, they might have," replied Dick. "McKinnon's at me to +get another. I was going to ask you if you knew of anything?" + +"Well, now, that's funny. I was wondering to myself this morning what +I'd do with that big brown horse of mine. He'll not go hunting again, +he never got the better of that hurt he got. But he's the very cut of +a farm-horse. You see, the poor devil had to carry _me_!" ended +the Big Doctor, with a laugh at himself. + +"I'll tell McKinnon of him. He wants a horse that will--" a recital of +the accomplishments exacted by Dick's steward followed. + +Dr. Mangan listened with attention. + +"Tell McKinnon he'd better have him over on trial. I know him and his +requirements! The horse mightn't be able to play the piano for him!" +said the Doctor, facetiously. "I'm not afraid of _you_, Major, +but I've a great respect for Mr. McKinnon!" + +"Oh, I'll tell old Mack he'll be lucky to get him," said Dick, with +his pleasant laugh; "you and I will strike the bargain!" + +The approach had been pegged out, and Dr. Mangan turned, for the +moment, to other subjects. + +It was a damp and sodden day near the beginning of September, and a +comfortable turf fire centralised and gave point to the room, as a +fire inevitably does. Major Talbot-Lowry was in the habit of saying +that the day of the month never warmed anybody yet, and if it was only +for the sake of the books--the truth being that the library fire at +Mount Music had never, in the memory of housemaid, been extinguished +save only when "the Major was out of home." Dick, like most +out-of-door men, considered that fresh air should be kept in its +proper place, outside the walls of the house, and an ancient +atmosphere, in which the varied scents of turf, tobacco, old books, +and old hound-couples, all had their share, filled the large, dingy +old room. Dusty and composite squirrel-hoards of objects that defy +classification, covered outlying tables, and lay in heaps on the +floor, awaiting that resurrection to useful life that Major +Talbot-Lowry's faith held would some day be theirs, and were, in the +meantime, the despair and demoralisation of housemaids. + +Deep in the bearskin rug in front of the fire (a trophy of one of the +rifles that filled a glass-fronted case over the mantel-shelf) lay the +two little fox-terriers, Rinka and Tashpy, in moody and determined +repose. For a brief period of suffering they had attempted to cleave +to Christian; but as the throng grew, and the time for tea lingered, +they had, in high offence, betaken themselves to their ultimate +citadel, the library. + +"I suppose it was her pup I was raffling awhile ago," remarked Dr. +Mangan, presently, as Rinka languidly rose, and having stretched +herself, and yawned, musically and meretriciously, put her nose on his +broad knee, deliberating as to whether the distinction of a human lap +outweighed the lowly comfort of the bearskin. + +"Doggie! Poor doggie! Down, now, down!" Dr. Mangan had no idea how to +talk to dogs, and he did not wish Rinka to sit on his best grey +trousers. + +"Hit her a smack!" said Major Dick; "don't let her bother you. +Christian has spoilt these dogs till they're perfect nuisances! Yes, +it's her pup. Who won it? It ought to be a clinker; it was the best of +the lot--" + +"I d'no did they draw for it yet. I took three tickets for it myself," +said the Doctor. "I want it for a sort of a cousin of me own--a very +sporting chap that's coming to Cluhir; he asked me could I get him a +dog." + +"What's he going to do in Cluhir?" asked Dick, carelessly. + +The approach was now clear, and Dr. Mangan began to advance. + +"Well, he's just taken his degree. He's a doctor, and he's coming here +for a while. He can give me a help while he's looking out for a +dispensary. He'd like some place where he'd get a little hunting now +and then. I expect you know his father, Major--old Tom Aherne, of +Pribawn--" + +Major Talbot-Lowry became more interested. + +"You don't say old Tom's son is a doctor! By Jove! That's very +creditable to him--a decent old fellow Tom was--and you say he wants +to hunt? That's the right sort of doctor! Look here!" + +Dick sat up, the light of inspiration woke in his ingenuous blue eyes, +he wrinkled his forehead with the super-intelligent concentration of a +not very brilliant intellect. "Didn't I hear that old Fogarty is +giving up the Dispensary here? Why don't you run him for that?" + +The shepherding of Dick Lowry was really an affair of a simplicity +unworthy of preparation made by that _ruse_ old collie, the Big +Doctor. Nevertheless, being an artist, he continued to play the game. + +"Knock Ceoil! Begad, that's a great notion! Now I come to think of it, +I did hear something of old Fogarty giving up, but somehow I never +thought of young Danny Aherne in connection with it. I thought I was +as well able as any man to put two and two together, but I declare I +might never have thought of it if it hadn't been for you! They say, if +you're too close to a thing, you can't see it!" + +Thus did the collie yap, while the sheep (who was a member of the +Dispensary Committee) gratified, and pleasantly conscious of +originality, trotted up the path and into the fold that had been +prepared for it. + +Meanwhile, in what house-agents call the reception-rooms, the Sale of +Work raged on, with auctions, with raffles, with card-fortunes, told +in a cave of rugs by a devoted sorceress, in a temperature that would +inure her to face with composure the witch's destiny at the stake; +with "occasional music," that fell upon the turmoil of talk more +softly than any petals from blown roses on the grass, and was just +sufficiently perceptible to impart the requisite flavour of festivity. +One item of the musical programme had indeed had power to still the +storm, but since it was contributed by the Mangan Quartet, it must be +admitted that, charming though it was, it owed something of its +success to surprise. The countryside had rallied to Lady Isabel with a +response that did credit to her as to them, yet, thronged though the +rooms were the Mangan family shone with a unique lustre as alone +representing the mighty Church of Rome. + +"Wonderful of them to come!" said the Church of Ireland ladies +approvingly; "the only R.C.'s here!" + +Yet the Mangan family was not quite alone in this representative +position; young Mr. Coppinger, their (as it were) inventor and +patentee, shared it with them, and was, moreover, beginning, for the +first time, and not without displeasure, to realise something of the +social complications that are involved by the difference of creed. It +was a matter of atmosphere; quite intangible, and quite perceptible. +Larry was discovering that he was something of an anomaly. "Only an +R.C. by accident," as he had heard someone say, in apparent +extenuation (a benevolence that he found irritating). He was learning +the meaning of the sudden silences, the too obvious changes of the +course of conversation, that seemed to occur when he drew near. He had +not, as yet, formulated these things to himself, but, on this +turbulent afternoon, it was possibly some livelier apprehension of +them that made him gravitate towards Barty Mangan, as towards a fellow +pariah, and induced him to seek with him the far asylum of the +schoolroom. There, save for the schoolroom cat, they were alone, and +they sat for some minutes in grateful silence, looking out, across +misty stretches of grass, to the river, and beyond it to the dense +green of the trees of Coppinger's Court. The sky was very low and +grey; by leaning out of the window a little, a far-off reach of river, +at the western end of the valley, could be descried; above it there +was a narrow slit in the clouds, and through it a faint and lovely +primrose light fell, like a veil, that hid, while it told of the +deathbed repentance of the dying day. Larry dragged his chair into the +corner of the window, and watched the growing glory of the sunset with +all his ardent soul in his eyes. + +Whatever this boy did, he did vividly, and to Barty Mangan, seated on +the shadow side, watching him, he was, as ever, a pageant, a being of +incalculable impulse, of flashing intensity and splendour. + +"Where on earth did you go, Barty? I looked about for you for ages +before I found you; but there was such an awful crowd of women--I'm +jolly glad to get out of it!" Larry leaned back in his chair and +proceeded to light a cigarette, as an assertion of the rights of a man +of nearly seventeen. + +"My father was taking Tishy and me about, showing us the house," +replied Barty, apologetically. (As a matter of fact, he said "me +fawther," but if this, and similar details of pronunciation, are not +known by nature, it is labour in vain to attempt to indicate them by +means of the wholly inadequate English alphabet.) "Larry," he went on, +with the candour that made a gentleman of him, "I never was in a house +like this before. I declare to you it frightens me! I feel like a rat +gone astray! I was in the dining-room by myself, looking at the +pictures, and that old fella' of a butler came in and frightened the +heels off me! He kept an eye on me that was like a flame from a +blow-pipe! You'd say he thought I was going to steal the house!" + +"I expect he did, too," said Larry, "especially if he thought that you +were a pal of mine. He hates me like blazes. He's one of those damned +Orangemen. I say, do you remember that thing in The Spirit of the +Nation, 'Orange and Green will carry the Day'? I bet old Evans would +rather lose, any day, than be 'linked in his might' with a Papist like +you or me! It's a most extraordinary thing how religion plays the +devil with Ireland!" + +There are certain standard truisms that must be rediscovered by each +successive generation (possibly because they have bored the preceding +one to extinction), and Larry was of the age at which truisms reveal +themselves as new ideas, and sing and shine with the radiancy of +morning stars. He was also young enough, and just sufficiently +interested in religion, to find it exciting to denounce it. The +fervour of his indictment lifted him from his chair, and he stood, +with the evening light on his hot face, enjoying his theme, and his +audience. + +"I stayed with some people in England last holidays, friends of my +people's; Protestants they were, too--Sour-faces,' as the 'Leader' +calls them!--and they didn't give a blow what religion I was! That was +_my_ affair, they thought--and so it was, too! Not like this +crowd here--I don't mean my _own_ people, you know," he added +hastily, "they're all right!" + +"Oh, I'm sure!" said Barty, in instant assent. + +"I hate England, of course," continued the student of The Spirit of +the Nation, hurriedly, "but I must say I get sick of this eternal +blackguarding of Catholics by Protestants, and Protestants by +Catholics--" + +"Ah, they don't mean it half the time!" put in Barty, pacifically; +"it's just a trick they have!" + +"Well, I don't care," said Larry, who didn't like being interrupted, +with a fling of his head; "they shouldn't do it! I hear people +shutting up when I come into the room--just as if I didn't jolly well +know they were abusing the priests or something like that. And if they +only knew it, _I_ don't care a curse how much they abuse them!" + +He took an angry pull at his cigarette, glaring at the unoffending +Barty. "''Tisn't the man I respects, 'tis the office!' That's what +Mrs. Twomey said, when I was chaffing her for dragging gravel up from +the river to put in front of her house, because the priest, whom she +loathes, was going to have a 'station' there!" + +The orator paused for breath, as well as for the duty of keeping his +cigarette alight. + +"Well, and isn't she quite right, too?" said Barty. "I've no great +fancy for Father Greer, but that doesn't affect my feeling for the +Church." + +He rose, and resting his elbows on the window-sill, leaned out into +the still air. + +"By Jingo! You don't often see the beat o' that for a sky! Look at it, +Larry. There's Orange and Green for you, if you like! God! I wish +_we_ could get them to work together like that!" + +One of those transformation scenes that sometimes follow on an +overcast and rainy day, was happening in the west. The sun had sunk +behind the hills, the grey clouds had vanished; the higher heaven was +green, clear and pale, but low in the west, long and fleecy rollers of +golden cloud lay in a sea of burning orange. + +At about the same time, the golden stream that had flowed so +generously from Mrs. Mangan's purse, had failed, and Mrs. Mangan, her +arms full of the fruit of those Christian graces of Faith, Hope and +Charity, that are indispensable to the success of a _bazaar_, was +asking Evans to order for her her "caw," by which term she indicated +the vehicle that had conveyed her to the scene of her triumph. + +For it was evident to the meanest capacity that Mrs. Mangan had now +paid her footing in society. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +"Go away from me, Miss Christian!" shouted Mrs. Twomey (but this was +merely an ejaculation of pleased surprise, not to be taken literally). +"Go-to-God-he-did-not!" + +"He did, indeed, Mrs. Twomey!" replied Christian, rooting at her habit +pocket, and extracting her purse. "He said that he'd won the +scholarship, and he knew you were praying hard for him or he wouldn't +have got it, and he said I was to give you this, with his love." + +"This" was a golden sovereign, a coin that did not often in its beauty +and entirety come Mrs. Twomey's way. + +She curtseyed so low that since--as has been said--she was but little +over four feet, Christian had to lean low over Harry's withers in +order to drop the sovereign into her hand. + +"That the sun may shine on his soul, my lovely gentleman! That he may +never want crown, pown', nor shi'n, nor you nayther! The Kingdom o' +Heaven is your due, the pair of yee, and may yee be long going there! +Amin!" + +A silent and prayerful moment followed on the benedictions, and Mrs. +Twomey's bright little eyes rolled devoutly heavenwards. This +concession to the solemnity of the occasion disposed of, the +beneficiary became normal again. + +"Look!" she resumed, while she bestowed the sovereign in an incredibly +old bag-purse with a brass rim; "tell him there's always one foolish +in a family, and what it is with Masther Larry, he's too give-ish! +That's what he is!" + +"You can tell him so yourself," replied Christian. "He'll be home in a +week." + +"Very good, faith! There's a welcome before him whatever time he'll +come! Sure I thought he'd be kept back in England till the Christmas?" + +"He's finished with school now," said Christian. "He's going abroad +for a bit after Christmas, and then he's going to Oxford!" + +The glory in Christian's voice conveyed more to Mrs. Twomey than any +statement of fact could achieve. + +"Well, well! I'm proud out of him, the poor child! But I wisht it was +home in his own house he was to be," she replied, raising her skirt, +and stuffing the purse into a large pocket that hung round her waist +over a red flannel petticoat; "han't he lessons enought learnt?" + +"Oh, but he _loves_ going to Oxford, Mrs. Twomey," said +Christian; "he's looking forward to it awfully; and _I'm_ going +to France to do lessons, too! I'll be talking French to you, Mrs. +Twomey, when I come back!" + +Mrs. Twomey uttered a screech of well-simulated horror. + +"For God's sake, child, do not!" she exclaimed; "didn't I know one o' +thim in Boyshton, a docther he was, and a German. He had as many +slishes and sloshes as'd fill a book! Sure I thought I'd lose me life +thrying could I make off at all what he said to me!" + +"Well, I shall be slishing and sloshing to you when I come home, Mrs. +Twomey!" said Christian, who was skilled in converse with such as Mrs. +Twomey; "but it will be in French. I suppose you talked German to your +Boston doctor?" + +"H'th indeed! Little enough I said to him! I never had anny wish for +thim docthors at all. Look at the little rakeen that's after gettin' +the Dispinsary at Cunnock-a-Ceoil! Three hundred pound the father ped +for it for him! A low, hungry little fella, that'd thravel the +counthry for the sake of a ha'penny--God!" + +The flow of Mrs. Twomey's eloquence ceased in shock, as Major +Talbot-Lowry and Miss Coppinger emerged from the dairy behind her. + +"Well, Mary," said Dick, "who is it who's so hard up for ha'pence?" + +Mrs. Twomey's equanimity was not slow to re-establish itself. She and +the Major were "the one age," and they had grown up together. + +"Why then, your Honour knows him well, and too well!" she snapped at +him, looking up his long length to his handsome, good natured face, +much as a minute female cur-dog might look and snap, presuming on her +sex, at a Great Dane. "It's the new little docthor, Danny Aherne, that +your Honour is afther putting in the Dispinsary!" + +"Oh, that poor little fellow?" said Dick, laughing, but with a touch +of discomposure; "_I_ didn't put him there. What's the matter +with him, any how? Why, he hasn't been at the job three months! Give +the man time, Mary, give him time! I'll engage you'll all be in love +with him by this time next year!" + +Mrs. Twomey glanced at Miss Coppinger, and replied with decorous +piety: + +"God grant it!" + +She then, with an admirable assumption of respect for her superiors, +and zeal for her office, moved past her visitors into the dairy. + +Dick Talbot-Lowry hesitated a moment or two, then he laughed again, +and strode after her into the dark dairy; Miss Coppinger followed him. +Mrs. Twomey, a tiny and almost imperceptible bundle, was already on +her knees in a corner, scrubbing a glistening metal churn, and so +engrossed in her task as to be unaware of her visitors. + +"Look here, Mary," began the Major, with a touch of severity; "what's +all this about Doctor Aherne?" + +Mrs. Twomey rose from her knees, dried her little scarlet claws in her +apron, and stood to attention. Having opened the debate by calling +fervently upon her God to witness that she knew nothing of the matter, +she proceeded, like a solo pianist, to run her fingers, as it were, +lightly over the keys. Passing swiftly from her own birth, upbringing, +invincible respectability, and remoteness from all neighbours, or +knowledge of neighbours, she coruscated in a cadenza in which the +families of Talbot-Lowry and Coppinger, and her devotion to both, were +dazzlingly blended, and finished in a grand chord on the apparently +irrelevant fact that she would die dead before she would put down any +dirty stain before the Major's honour. + +"But Mary," interposed Frederica, with an inartistic directness that +was in painful contrast to the cadenza, "what has the Major got to say +to Doctor Aherne?" + +The question was ignored; the artist dashed on into a presto movement, +in which, as far as any direct theme was discernible, Dr. Mangan, his +cupidity, his riches, the riches of Dr. Aherne's parents were the +leading motives. Also, parenthetically, that Danny Aherne was without +shoe or stocking to his foot when he was going to school in Pribawn +with her own poor little boy. "And look at him now!" continued Mrs. +Twomey, on a high reciting note, and still presto, "with his car and +his horse, and his coat with an owld cat skin for a collar on it, and +his Tommy-shirts without tails!" + +There was an instant of pause, and Frederica breathed the words +"'Dicky' shirt-fronts!" to her bewildered cousin. + +"Himself and the Big Docthor walking the streets of Cluhir like two +paycocks!" went on Mrs. Twomey with ever-increasing speed and fury. +"Ha! Ha! Didn't I meet him back in Pribawn ere yistherday. 'How great +you are in yourself!' says I to him. 'It done _you_ no harm to +kill a woman!' says I. 'Mind your own business!' says he to me. +'Throth then, an' I _will_ mind it!' says I, 'an' I'll have +plenty to mind it without you! I'll have plenty to mind it without +yourself! Dannileen alay!'" + +"What on earth are you talking about?" Dick broke in impatiently. + +Mrs. Twomey flung a glance to the doorway. Christian was no longer +there. On a lower key, and directed to Miss Coppinger, a fresh stream +flowed. A young woman had died; a young woman who had been privileged +to marry a relative, of a degree of relationship obscure, but still +honoured, of Mikey Twomey's; "and she afther having a young son, and +the boy that marrit her as proud!--and a very good baby, and what +misfortune came to her no one'd know, only the Lord God Almighty, but +she died on them. And she a fine, hard, hearty, blushy, big lump of a +gerr'l. And 'tis true what they said--" + +The details that followed were hissed, prestissimo, into the ear of +Miss Coppinger, but that Dr. Aherne was to be blamed, was made as +clear to Dick Talbot-Lowry as to his cousin. + +The tale was concluded in tears. + +"Look! I has to cry when I thinks of it!" + +It is impossible with Mrs. Twomey, and her like, to argue a point, or +to attempt an appeal to reason. A flat and dictatorial contradiction +may have some temporary effect, and Major Talbot-Lowry adopted this +method, for lack of better, in defence of his nominee. Mrs. Twomey, +however, continued to weep. + +"But Mary," urged Frederica, "there isn't a doctor in the world who +doesn't lose a patient sometimes. It may not have been this +unfortunate young man's fault in the least--" + +"'Tisn't that I'm crying for at all," sobbed Mrs. Twomey, a deplorable +little figure, her head bent down, while she wiped violently and +alternately her nose and her eyes in her sacking apron. "But it is +what the people is sayin' on the roads about" (sob) "about" +(sniff)-- + +"About _what_?' said Dick, who was being bored. + +"About your Honour!" returned Mrs. Twomey, in a sort of roar. + +"And what the devil are they saying about me?" + +"God forbid that I'd put down any dirty stain before your Honour," +sobbed Mrs. Twomey, recurring to her earlier metaphor; "it's that big +horse that ye're afther buyin' from Docthor Mangan; they say that he +gave him to ye too cheap on the head of it--" + +"On the head of what, woman?" shouted Dick, now passing, by the +well-worn channel of anxiety, from boredom to anger. + +"On the head of the Dispinsary! Sure they says 'twas your Honour gave +it to Danny Aherne!" + +It is unnecessary to record Major Talbot-Lowry's indignation on +hearing this charge. The dairy, with its low ceiling and paven floor, +echoed, submissively, his well-justified strictures on the lies and +evil speaking of his humbler neighbours, and Mrs. Twomey dried her +eyes (much as she would scrub out one of her milk-pans) and hearkened. + +Who shall say if she believed him? There is a standard of honour, +rigid and stern, for gentlemen, just as there is quite another +standard for those who do not, in the opinion of a people, Austrian in +their definition of what is or is not gentle birth, merit that title. +Dick Talbot-Lowry was a gentleman, and, in her own words, no "dirty +stain" would ever be attributed to him by Mary Twomey, but even she +knew that the ethics of buying and selling a horse apply to no other +transaction, and she knew also that in the disposal of a "place," more +may occur than meets the eye. She resented the slur on her chieftain, +but, in spite of her wrath, she could not feel quite certain that the +accusation was entirely unfounded. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +The town of Cluhir had more features than those that have already been +enumerated, to entitle it to respect. There was, primarily, the great +river, that moved majestically in its midst, bearing a church, +impartially, on its either bank, and hiding and nourishing in its +depths the salmon that gave the town its reason for existence. There +was the tall and noble bridge that spanned the river, and joined the +rival churches together (a feat of which it is safe to say no other +power in Ireland was capable). It was made of that blue-grey limestone +that builds bridges, and churches, and houses, with an equal success, +and it was the equivalent of a profession for many of the inhabitants +of the town, who were accustomed to spend long, meditative hours upon +it, criticising the fishermen on the bank below, watching the fish, +talking of fish, thinking of fish, without haste, and with a good deal +of rest. There was also Hallinan's Hotel, that was very far from being +a mere country hotel. The stately bow-windows of its coffee-room have +already been mentioned, but its wide verandah must not be forgotten, +stone-paven, glass-roofed, umbrageous with tropic vegetation, beneath +whose shade, on the sunny days that are enjoyed by the lesser world of +men, sad anglers, in ancient tweed suits, lolled, broken-heartedly, in +basket-chairs. And, finally, on the town's highest level, was The +Mall, reserved, dignified, with a double row of great beech-trees, and +behind them, on both sides of the wide roadway, the reserved and +dignified houses of the magnates of Cluhir. Eminent in both these +qualities was No. 6; almost too much so, Mrs. Mangan thought +sometimes. On a wet day she would say, it would be as good for you to +be in the Back of Beyond itself, as here, where you might be +flattening your nose all day and not see as much as a bike going by. + +Dr. Mangan, however, fully recognised the value of this seclusion. His +surgery was at the back of the house, and its unbroken quiet was +grateful to a man who had much to do, and plenty to think of. He was +seated in it, one mild February evening, some months after the +election of Dr. Aherne. It had been market-day in Cluhir; patients had +been many, and fees satisfactory. The Doctor reclined in front of a +good turf and wood fire, and smoked a mellow pipe, and reviewed the +run of events. Danny Aherne had been in, to speak to him about a case, +that afternoon, and Dr. Mangan's thoughts ran back to that little +affair of the Knock Ceoil Dispensary, and of Major Talbot-Lowry's part +in the matter. Danny had just nipped in before the Local Government +Bill took the power away from the old Dispensary Committees. Dam' luck +for Danny. The Major had been useful enough. It hadn't been his vote, +so much as his influence, that had got the boy the job. The affair, as +far as the Doctor was concerned, was of quite minor importance, but it +had been useful in promoting the feeling of intimacy between the +houses of Mangan and Talbot-Lowry. That omniscient composite +authority, "The people on the roads," whose views had been quoted by +Mrs. Twomey, had not been wrong in hinting that the Doctor had +permitted the Major to have the best of the bargain about the big +brown horse. Old Tom Aherne had made it well worth his while to do so, +so everyone had come comfortably out of the transaction. Nor had Dr. +Mangan, in diagnosing Major Talbot-Lowry, been wrong in his assumption +that Dick, generous, and elated by his success in bargaining, would +wish to indemnify his opponent for having had the worst of it, and +would consider the support of Danny Aherne as a suitable expression of +the wish. + +The Big Doctor's intimacy with Dick had progressed of late with +remarkable rapidity. During one of those friendly talks over the Mount +Music library fire, that had latterly been recurring with increasing +frequency, an opportunity had risen for the Doctor--"a warm man," as +has been said--to offer to the Major a tangible proof of his +friendship. + +"After all, there's the money lying idle at my bank," the Doctor had +said, breezily. + +Dick, in a moment of irritation and perplexity, had expatiated on the +expenses consequent on launching sons into professions, and also on +the pig-headed determination of annuitants to "hang on," regardless of +the inconveniences occasioned to a heavily burdened property by this +want of consideration. + +"Three half-sisters of my father's," says Dick, "as old as three men +each of 'em, and not a notion of dying among 'em! They'll see +_me_ out, I'll swear!" + +It was then that that idle money had been tactfully referred to. + +"I'll knock better interest out of you, Major, than the bank'll give +me!" said the Big Doctor, jovially. "I want no security from +_you_! Your word--" + +"Oh, that will never do, my dear fellow," Dick had replied, as he was +meant to reply. "Of course it must be a _pukka_ business deal. +I'll give you--" + +In his relief, Dick was ready to give to this kind William of +Deloraine any security that he would suggest. It was, of course, a +purely nominal affair--but still--what about a mortgage on the house +and demesne? How would that do? + +The Doctor thought it would do very well. + +It should be established, while it was still possible to induce the +reader to accept such a statement, that the Big Doctor was, as he +himself might have said, "not too bad a fellow altogether!" In public +life, a fighter, wily and skilled; compassionate to the poor, yet +exacting, implacably, practical recognition of his compassion. In his +own house, easy-going and autocratic; in his Church, a slave; a +confidential slave, whose gladiatorial gifts were valued, and whose +idiosyncrasies might be humoured, but none the less, a slave. He was +like an elephant in his hugeness, and suppleness, his dangerousness, +and his gentleness. His head was not crowned with the bald benevolence +that an elephant wears, but seated on his neck was a mahout, and the +mahout was Father Greer, the Parish Priest of Cluhir. + +Now, on this quiet evening, he sat and smoked by the fire, and, +touching "the tender stops of various quills," his eager thought +paused longest on the note that stood for Tishy. Tishy was, in her own +way, as sound an asset as any that he possessed, a thoroughly +well-made article, a right-down handsome girl, the Big Doctor thought +complacently, good enough for any position, and for any man. + +"But she's not for any man, I can tell them!" thought Tishy's father; +"that's just where the difference of it is! I'll see to that, you may +take your oath!" + +Then he began to consider his son. He could not feel the same +confidence in Barty that Tishy inspired. Where Barty got hold of all +his dam-silly notions was more than anyone, least of all his father, +could imagine. Nevertheless, they had had their uses, and might still +justify themselves "in a sense," he thought; "if not in one way, maybe +in another." He moved on to his wife. How could she contribute to the +Great Ideas? Ideas were not much in her line, but if you told her what +to do, she'd do it. After all, that was the main thing. Women's own +notions were often more bother than they were worth. Poor Annie! His +big mouth, under the coarse black moustache, spread into a smile, and +his blue-grey eyes smiled with it. "I was a fool once about her, and +b' Jove, I think I'm not much better now!" he said to himself, +indulgently. The handsomest woman this minute in the barony, and she +had never so much as looked crooked at any man since the day he +married her. After all, she had been a credit at that Mount Music +show. There wasn't a woman to touch her in the place; she had held her +own with them; she had spent his money as he had told her to spend it. +Like a lady. "I like that; how much? Here's your money!" That was what +he had told her to say, and she had said it all right. No damned +huxterings. And those women whom he wished her to get on with, she +_had_ got on with. They liked her. It was easy to see that; and +Lady Isabel had often come in to see her since the show, and had +stayed for tea, as friendly as you please. Annie was all right. + +The gossip of Cluhir had been as mistaken in the matter of the Mangans +as gossip often is. Francis Mangan had married his wife for the +entirely unjudicious reason that her beauty had mastered his common +sense. After his marriage his common sense, having regained the upper +hand, was satisfied that, even though her + + "Charms were to change by to-morrow + And fleet in his arms," + +she would still be the only wife in the world for him. None the less +he did not pretend indifference to the knowledge that his wife was the +handsomest woman in Cluhir, and there was, indeed, no reason why he +should do so. And thus the Big Doctor had a double triumph. + +There came a fumbling tap on the door, it opened a little, and +Hannah's head came twisting round it. + +"Docthor!" spoke the head, like a Teraph, "the Misthress says to have +ye come in. The supper's ready, and the priest is in it." + +This remarkable statement was accepted by the Doctor with composure, +as expressing the fact that Father Greer had arrived. + +"Tell her I'm coming this minute," he said, rising ponderously to his +feet; "say to them to go down without me." + +He locked up the fees that were lying on the table, being a careful +man, and washed his huge, pale hands with the particularity that a +doctor brings to that task. Huge though they were, they had the +sensitiveness that is the gift of music, and is also part of the +endowment of the surgeon. + +"Ah, here he is now!" said Mrs. Mangan, as the Doctor came, +enormously, into the small dining-room. "For shame for you, Francis, +to be so late." + +"Ah, don't scold him, Mrs. Mangan!" said the priest simpering +conventionally. "Wasn't it ministering to the afflicted that delayed +him! Doctors mustn't be subjected to the rules that bind ordinary +people!" + +"That's right, Father," said the Doctor, beginning to carve a large, +cold goose, with the skill that his trade bestows; "stand up for me +now! Don't let her bully me--though indeed I might be used to it by +this time!" + +"Doesn't he look like it, the poor fella!" scoffed Mrs. Mangan, +directing a melting look at her husband; "starved and pairsecuted! +That's what he is!" + +Father Greer smiled permissively over the rim of his glass of whisky +and water; it was strong and good, and the food was good also, and +abundant. Mrs. Mangan's suppers were as generous as her own contours, +and were noted for their excellence. She herself was not so much to +the priest's taste. He was celibate by nature as well as by +profession. Women were antagonistic to him, and Mrs. Mangan, godly +matron though she was, seemed to him to symbolize a very different +ordering of life to that which he approved; but the Big Doctor was an +asset of the Church who must be simpered upon, and for whose sake a +little social boredom must be unrepiningly endured. He was an older +man, by a good many years, than the Doctor, and was nearer sixty than +fifty, but his figure was slight and active, and his scant hair was +dark and silky, though there was a light dust of grey in it over the +ears, which were thin and outstanding, and shared with his nostrils +and eyelids the tinge of red that was denied to the rest of his face. +He had the wide, brains-carrying forehead of a fox, as well as a fox's +narrow jaw, but his eyes were small and black, and as quick as a +bird's. + +Barty and Tishy, who were not agreed in many things, were agreed in +being afraid of him. They sat in perfect silence, while their mother +occupied herself with directions to Hannah, who hovered, +indeterminately, near the door, and their father discoursed the +visitor. Father Greer was something of a traveller, and he was now +giving an instructive account of a recent visit to Switzerland, and of +the "winter sports" that had occupied the energies of all in the hotel +save himself. + +"I found the air as bracing and as serviceable to me as you had led me +to expect," he said to his host, "but the sports seemed to me to make +a toil of pleasure, and the dancing that went on every night--'twas +impossible to sleep! Well! Youthful frivolity, I suppose, must be +condoned, but I may say I was greatly annoyed at an incident that +occurred at a neighbouring hotel. Mostly English, the visitors were, +and they held a Protestant service on Sunday in the saller-mongy." + +Barty looked secretly at his sister. His expression said: "And why +shouldn't they?" + +Father Greer ignored the look, and continued his recital: "As was +quite right and proper for them to do." + +There was a blink of the black eyes, and Barty recognised that he had +not been unobserved. + +"There was what is called a Reading-party of young min, with a tutor, +at the hotel," went on the priest. "Protestants they were--so far as +they had any religion--but only wun of them attended that service. It +was said he was the wun and only person able to play the piano in the +hotel. Some English ladies requested him to play--I believe there was +some very unsuitable joking about it--and he consented. He attended +that service; he played their English hymns," Father Greer paused, and +gathered up the table with a glance before his climax. "That young +man, I regret to say, was an Irish Catholic, one whom you all +know--young Mr. St. Lawrence Coppinger!" + +Mrs. Mangan, who had been too much harassed by Hannah's failure to +decode her signals, to attend, heard the name only, and said lovingly: + +"The dear boy! How nice for him and you to meet so far away from home, +Father!" + +Barty's satisfaction at his mother's unexpected comment took the form +of kicking his sister, heavily. Tishy, who sang in the chapel choir, +and was at this time inclined to regard herself as a pillar of the +Church, returned the kick with a viciousness that indicated a hostile +point of view, and said loftily: + +"But to think they'd ask him! The English are very lax. Don't you +think so, Father?" + +Dr. Mangan laughed apologetically. + +"Well, it's a wonder that a party of sheep would let a poor goat into +their fold at all!" he said, in a voice that asked for forgiveness for +the erring goat. "I suppose the young ladies got him in a corner, and +'twas hard for him to refuse. You'd hardly blame him for that!" + +Father Greer looked bleakly down his nose and said nothing. + +Barty scowled, considering that his hero stood in no need of apology. +Dr. Mangan continued his endeavour to save the situation. + +"But there's no understanding of Protestants!" he resumed, +good-humouredly; "I met an old fellow on the train th' other day, old +William Henderson of Glen Brickeen, and he was telling me of a row he +had with his clergyman, the Reverend Wilson. 'Oh,' says he, 'I gave up +going to church on the head of it!' 'And isn't that a great sin for +you,' says I, 'to give up going to church?' 'Oh,' says he, 'I explain +that to God every Saturday. He understands well what Mr. Wilson done +to me, and why I wouldn't go to church as long as he was in it.' +'Maybe,' said I, funning him, 'some day he might be before you in +Heaven with his story, and what'll you do then?' 'Oh,' said he, I'll +make out a place for myself, never fear! There's places of all sorts +in it!' says he. 'I suppose it's the many mansions you're thinking +of!' said I. 'You think the poor Roman Catholics don't know their +Bibles, but I know that much!'" + +"Well, Francis," said Mrs. Mangan, admiringly, "I never knew you that +you'd be without an answer, no matter what anyone'd say to you! 'Many +mansions,' says you! I declare I'd never have thought of that! Father, +wouldn't you say he answered him well!" + +Father Greer, having made his point, smiled indulgently, and, as he +was deeply involved in a mouthful of tough goose, the smile, blended +with the act of mastication, made him look more than ever like a fox, +a fox in a trap, gnashing at his captors. + +"I always knew the Doctor could be trusted to 'give a knave an +answer,' as Shakespeare says," he said, when the power of speech was +restored to him; "I'm often surprised at the liberty, I might almost +say the licence, that is met with in Protestants in connection with +their religion. Take the case of young Mr. Coppinger that I was +speaking of. That was a melancholy instance of evil communications +corrupting good manners. I may say that I regard with anxiety a too +great freedom, what I may call an unrestrained intercourse, between +members of the two churches--that is, indeed, if I am justified in +describing as a church that which I have heard stigmatised as 'a +fortuitous concourse of atheistic atoms'!" + +Father Greer's nose came down over his upper lip, the corners of his +mouth went up, and a succession of sniffs indicated that he was +laughing. + +"That may be rather severe," he conceded, "but I may say that, for my +part, I consider that Catholics have a sufficiency of pleasing society +within their own communion, without striving to go beyond it!" + +Father Greer paused, looked round the table as if to receive the +general assent, and put his sharp nose into the tumbler of brown +whisky and water, to whose replenishing the Doctor had not failed to +attend. + +A rather stricken silence followed. Mrs. Mangan's large and handsome +brown eyes turned guiltily to her husband, and moved on from his face +to one of the many trophies of the Mount Music Sale, a Protestant +chair back, now flaunting itself on a Catholic chair, under the very +eyes of the Parish Priest! + +Barty glowered at his plate; Tishy, who had not enjoyed herself at the +Sale, felt, in consequence, that she was now justified in doing so at +the expense of her family, and held up her head, and looked at her +father. It was plain to see that the elephant had felt the prick of +the Mahout's _ankus_. The Big Doctor's face was perturbed. Tishy +saw him look at the little priest's glass, and knew that he wished it +were empty, in order that he might pour into it a propitiatory +oblation. He cleared his throat once or twice before he spoke. + +"Very true, Father, very true. I used to think the same thing in +England. The chaps I used to meet there--no one would know what +religion they belong to, no more than if they were heathens. That +young lad that you weren't pleased with--young Coppinger--I believe +he's as good a Catholic as any of us, but he happens to be thrown +mostly among Protestants. I often think it's no more than our duty as +Catholics to try and see as much as we can of him. He and Barty here, +got to be very great with each other the time he was with us, but it's +only an odd time now that we get a sight of him." + +"I was talking to him a long while, the last time he was home," said +Barty, looking up, with something smouldering in his voice, "he told +me he was going to Oxford next October. It's well to be him!" he ended +defiantly. + +"Now, I wouldn't be too sure of that at all!" said Father Greer, with +a smoothness that implied the laying aside of the _ankus_; "I +think, my young friend, that your good father's house is as safe and +happy a place for you as you could wish for!" He turned to the Doctor. +"I may say that there is a belief among certain classes that no one is +properly edjucated without they've been sent to England. I thought my +friend Barty, was a better Irishman than it seems he is!" + +"I'm as good an Irishman as any man!" said Barty, in a sudden blaze, +"and may-be better than some!" + +His face had turned white, and his eyes, that were as large and dark +as his mother's, met those of Father Greer with the courage of anger. + +"What harm is it to want to get a better education than what I have? I +don't see why I shouldn't want to go to Oxford, or Switzerland either, +for the matter o' that--as well as another!" + +Father Greer, as Dr. Mangan remarked subsequently, took Barty's making +a fool of himself very well. He put his head on one side, his black +eyebrows went up, and he again uttered that succession of sniffs that +served him for a laugh. + +"It seems that I have made a railing accusation without meaning it, +and brought down fire from heaven, like the Prophet Elijah, only to +find that I am myself to forrum the burnt offering!" he said, +pleasantly. "Well, well, Barty, don't consume me entirely in your just +indignation, and I'll promise you to make no insinuendoes in future as +to whether you're a good or bad Irishman!" + +I am unable to determine if Father Greer deliberately devised this +felicitous amalgamation of the two words that were in his mind, or if +it was unintentional, and an indication that Barty's brief flare of +revolt had flustered him a little. I am inclined to the latter theory. +In any case, the word is a useful one. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +Christian was in the kennels, in their innermost depths. She was, in +fact, seated on the bench of "the ladies" lodging-house, on the dry +and rustling cushion of bracken on which Major Talbot-Lowry bedded his +pack. + +Yearning to her, sitting all over her, covering her with their +ponderous affection, were the hounds. Two large ladies had each a head +on each of her shoulders; two more had laid their chins on her knees, +and were gazing raptly into her face. The less favoured stood, and +squeezed, and pushed, and panted, with glowing eyes and waving sterns, +in as close a circle round her as it was possible to form. + +"Dearest things!" apostrophised Christian, "I feel like Nero--I wish +you had only one lovely head, so that I might kiss you all at once!" + +"Rot!" said Larry, who was leaning against the wall, facing her, and +saying: "Down, you brute!" at intervals, to hounds, who, having failed +to force their way to Christian, were directing their attention to +him, to the detriment of his grey flannel trousers. "And look at your +dress from their filthy paws!" + +"Good Gawd, Mr. Larry Sir! Don't say paws! 'Ounds 'ave _feet_" +responded Christian, whose imitation of Cottingham was no less +accurate now than it had been some eight years earlier; "and I don't +care a pin for this old skirt anyway--" + +"I'm as fond of hounds as anyone," said Larry, reprovingly, "but I +must say I should draw the line at their licking my face!" + +"They don't!" said Christian, indignantly; "that's the beauty of them, +They never lick--except perhaps my darling Nancy, because I nursed her +when she had pneumonia." + +"If I were you, Cottingham, I wouldn't let Miss Christian into the +kennels," said Larry, with severity, "she makes lap-dogs of the +hounds!" + +Cottingham had joined the party, and was leaning on the half-door of +the kennel, watching his hounds with the never-failing interest of a +good kennel-huntsman. + +"I couldn't be too 'ard on Miss Christeen, sir," replied Cottingham; +"her's the best walk I have. That there Nancy was a sickly little +thing enough when I sent 'er to Miss Christeen, and look at 'er now! A +slapping fine bitch!" + +Christian turned a slow and expressionless eye upon her accuser, +indicating triumph. + +"It's like this with that Nancy," continued Cottingham, with whom the +preaching habit, fostered by years of laying down the law on +subservient fields, was inveterate. "Her got that fond of Miss +Christeen, her follered 'er about, the way the ole lamb followed Mary, +as they say. And that artful she got! Wouldn't try a yard! An' she 'ad +the 'ole o' the young entry like 'erself. Any sort of a check, and +back they all comes an' looks at me, wi' their 'eads a one side, and +their sterns agoin' like this," he wagged a stubby fore-finger to and +fro in so precisely the right rhythm, that, stubby as it was, no magic +wand could evolve more instantly the scene to be presented; "an' +that's 'ow it'd be, th' old 'ounds workin' 'ard, and the young uns +lookin' like they 'as nothin' to do only admire of me!" + +"Quite right, too!" truckled Christian. + +"Ah, Miss Christeen, I'm too used to soft soap, I am!" + +"Well, you know, Cottingham, it was _I_ cured Nancy when she took +to following _me_ about." She turned to Larry. "Luckily, I broke +my wrist, and by the time I was able to ride again she had given me up +and taken to hunting." + +"That's what you says, Miss," said Cottingham; "but I reckon what her +wanted was what her got from _me_--a good 'idin'!" + +Having made his point, Cottingham, a true artist, departed at the +little toddling run that in kennels indicates devotion to duty, +combined with a slippery floor. + +"I had forgotten about your breaking your wrist--I remember about my +own, right enough!" said Larry. "What rotten luck!" + +"Oh, it's dead sound now," said Christian. "Look!" She stood up, and +held out both her slender hands to him across the intervening hounds' +backs. "I bet you don't know which is which!" + +Larry took a hand in each of his, and flexed the wrists. "The left, +wasn't it?" he said, without releasing them. "Not that I see any +difference, only I remember now that I heard you had smashed the same +one that I did." + +"It did hurt--horribly! I expect you know. It hurts still a little, +sometimes." She looked at him for sympathy. She was nearly eighteen +now, and had caught him up in height, so that her brown eyes looked +straight into his blue ones. + +"Poor little paw!" said Larry patronizingly; he was going to be +twenty-one in a week, and felt immeasurably older than Christian. "Oh, +by the way, I forgot! I mustn't say paw. Must I call it 'foot'? I'll +make it well, anyhow!" he ended, and, in what he felt to be the manner +of a kind uncle, he kissed the injured wrist. + +"_Quite_ well now, thank you!" said Christian, mockingly, +withdrawing her hands. "If I had only thought of it, I could have got +Nancy to lick it! It might have done just as well!" Her colour had +risen a little. "Let's come out; it's rather stuffy in here." + +At a little distance from the kennel precincts were waiting two small, +smooth, white dogs, daughters of the adored companions of Christian's +childhood, themselves scarcely less adored than were their parents. +Seated, as was their practice, in a well-chosen position, that +combined seclusion with a commanding view of the detested hounds, they +had not ceased (as was also their practice) from loud and desolate +barking, an exercise that in the case of Dooley, the younger and more +highly-strung of the couple, was accustomed to develop into a +sustained contralto wail. As Christian and Larry left the kennel yard, +this moment had been reached. Dooley's nose was in the air, her mouth +was as round as the neck of a bottle, her white throat looked as long +as a swan's throat, and the bark was softening into sobs. Christian +flung herself down, and gathered her and her sister, the second Rinka, +into her arms. + +"Let's sit down here," she said, sending her hat spinning down the +grassy slope; "it's too lovely to go in, and I want a cigarette." + +"Haven't got one," said Larry. "Sorry. I gave them up in Lent, and now +I'm doing as well without 'em." + +"Nerve gone already," said Christian. "That's what comes of missing a +season!" She laughed up at him. + +"Don't know," said Larry, dropping down beside her on the dry, sun-hot +grass; "quite likely; but it wasn't that. The fact was"--he +hesitated--"I met a very decent Padre at Muerren. We used to talk a lot +about--oh, no end of things! When he found I was Irish he was awfully +pleased. He congratulated me on belonging to the Old Faith--he's Irish +himself, but he's never lived over here. He said it was such a +wonderful link with the people and the past--such a romantic religion! +And so it is, you know. It hadn't struck me, somehow, till Father +Nugent talked of it. I'm sorry for you, Christian! Don't you feel +being a Protestant is a bit--well--stodgy--and respectable--no sort of +poetry?" + +"I like stodge," said Christian, serenely. + +Larry paid this frivolity no attention. He had only recently +discovered that he possessed a soul, and he was as much pleased with +it as he had been with his first watch, and he found much the same +enjoyment in producing and examining it, that had been afforded to him +by the watch. + +"It was Father Nugent's suggestion to give up smoking," he said, +unable to eliminate from his voice a touch of pride, "I knocked off +whiskies and sodas, too--but that was off my own bat." + +"'Smite them by the merit of the Lenten Fast!'" murmured Christian. +Unlike Larry, she evaded personalities and especially those that +involved a discussion of religion. "Larry do you remember the awful +rags we used to have over that hymn! What ages it is since you were at +home! Not since I've had my hair up!" + +"By Jove, I hardly knew you when I saw you first!" responded Larry, +his sails filling on a fresh tack with characteristic speed. "It's not +as light as it used to be. I'm not sure that I like it up." + +He looked at her critically. Her hair, thick and waving lay darkly on +her forehead, and was stacked in masses upon her small head on a +system known only to herself. + +"That's a pity," said Christian, coolly, "and I hate it, too. But +unluckily, whether you and I hate it or not, it's got to stay up +now--that's to say, when it will. I am supposed to be 'out.' I'm +nearly eighteen, you know. I never thought I'd live to such an age." + +"Oh, wait till you're 'of age,' like me!" said Larry, impressively. +"Then you'll know the horrors of longevity. I've got to take over the +show--the tenants and all the rest of it--from your father, and Aunt +Freddy, next week! An awful job it's going to be! Cousin Dick says +that these revisions of rent have played the deuce all round. I shall +make old Barty Mangan my agent. He's a solicitor now all right. He can +run the show. I like old Barty, don't you?" + +"I hardly ever see him," said Christian, cautiously. "He has rather +nice looks--more like a poet than a solicitor." + +"You see, I want to go abroad, and do some music, and paint," said +Larry, pressing on with his own subject. "Take painting on seriously, +you know--" + +"I know," said Christian, thoughtfully, "I don't envy Barty Mangan! I +know Papa's having botheration with our people--" + +"All the more reason for me to earn my living by painting!" responded +Larry cheerfully. + +They were sitting at the edge of a patch of plantation. It was the +middle of May, and the young larches behind them were clad in a cloud +of pale emerald; the clumps of hawthorn, that were dotted about the +park, between the kennels and the river, were sending forth the +fragrance of their whiteness; the new green had come into the grass, +though it was almost smothered in the snow of daisies; primroses and +wild hyacinths had strayed from the little wood, and straggling down +the hillside, had joined hands and agreed, the first, to linger, the +latter, to hasten into blow, and so to share the month between them. +Just below, on the turn of the hill, was a big thicket of furze +bushes, more golden than gold, sweeter also than honey and the +honeycomb. From Larry's woods across the Ownashee, the cuckoo's voice +came, as melodiously monotonous and as full of associations as the +bell of a village church. Silvery clouds were sailing very high in a +sky of thinnest, sweetest blue; little jets of sparkling sound, rising +and falling in it, bespoke the invisible, rapturous larks, tireless as +a playing fountain; and the sun blazed down on the boy and the girl +and the two little dogs seated there in the full of it. + +Larry rolled over and over on the grass like a young colt. + +"Oh, murder-in-Irish!" he groaned, in sheer ecstasy, "isn't it +gorgeous! I always forget how entirely stunning Ireland is, till I +come back to it!" + +He could say no more, as both dogs had sprung from Christian's arms, +and were feverishly licking his face. + +"Your own fault!" said Christian, answering his expostulations. "Kind +little things, they thought you asked for it." + +"I repeat," said Larry, lying on his back, and holding off his +assailants with difficulty, "eliminating badly brought-up dogs, that +Ireland is the finest country in the world, and--listen to this, +Christian!--the Irish are the finest people, _and_ the worst +governed!" + +"'The foinest pisanthry in Europe'!" said Christian, in gibing +exaggeration. "Larry, you've got awfully English!" Larry rolled over +and came into play again, sitting bolt upright; "I'm a Home Ruler!" + +"Don't be absurd," said Christian, tranquilly. + +"I'm not the least absurd," returned Larry. "I _mean_ it. If not +a Republican!" he added, ostentatiously, and began to chant: + + "And Ireland shall be free, + From the centre to the sea, + And huzza for Libertee, + Says the Shan Van Voght!" + +"I say, you remember the old companions of Finn? Well they're rolling +up again! I've started them at Oxford. Six members already! Two men in +my college, and--" + +"English, of course!" interrupted Christian, with an effective tone of +elderly superiority. "People like yourself, who know nothing about +it!" + +This was an insult not easily to be tolerated; the gage of battle did +not lie long at Larry's feet, and it may be admitted that the +challenger would have been ill pleased had it been ignored. + +In the five years that had passed since the curtain of this narrative +went down on Christian, she had changed more than had Larry. It was as +though that extra-worldly endowment of her childhood having ceased to +manifest in external ways, had turned its light inwards. The power of +hearing what others could not hear, had faded, but a subtlety of mind, +a clarity, a sort of pondering, intellectual self-consciousness (that +had no kinship with that other form of self-consciousness that is only +inverted self-conceit) had taken the place of those voices that she +had once refused to deny to the inquisitorial John. + +The battle, with regard to the resurrected Companions of Finn, having +waxed and waned in a course that need not here be followed, the +argument took on another phase. + +"You know, Larry," Christian said, half-absently twisting and +arranging Dooley's little tan ears, in order to express, on Dooley's +behalf, with them, various emotions, "it seems to me that all these +political revolutions that you are so anxious to start, for the good +of Ireland, are like putting the cart before the horse." + +"What do you mean?" asked Larry, eyeing her with undisguised surprise. + +"Well," said Christian, slowly, gazing across the valley with eyes +more than ever like the clearest brown stream, "you've got to begin +with the individual. After all, Ireland is made up of individuals, and +each of them contributes in some way to the big result. It seems to me +that the real Spirit of the Nation is--is--" + +Her gaze at the far woods became fixed, and her hands ceased to play +with the soft, tan ears. + +"Is what?" said Larry, rather impatiently. He was bewildered by this +grave, young debater, and was trying to reconcile her with the child +he had left behind him last year, or even with the child who, five +minutes ago, had wished to impress a comprehensive kiss on all the +hounds at once. Moreover, a young gentleman on the imminent verge of +official manhood, is justified in resenting ideas, in opposition to +his own, being offered to him by a little girl, with her hair only +just "up," whom he regards as no more than a niece, or thereabouts. + +"Well," said Christian, still more slowly, her eyes lifting from the +woods and resting on a shining snowball of a cloud, "it's Religious +Intolerance, I think! That seems to me the Spirit of the Nation--my +side as bad as yours, and yours as bad as mine--" + +"Oh, the parsons and the priests," said Larry, airily. "Oh you wait, +Christian! You don't know! You've been stuck down here in a hole. If +you met Father Nugent--" + +"But I don't mean them only," said Christian, standing to her guns; "I +mean the individual--you and me! Just anybody--we're all the same. The +Shan van Voght has got to free us from each other before she takes on +England!" She looked at Larry; the seriousness left her face, and she +shook back the dark hair from her forehead with just the same gay, +mutinous toss of the head that a young horse will give when the rider +picks up the reins. "I may have been stuck down here in a hole!" said +Christian, mocking him; "but anyhow, I haven't lived in England and +lost my eye!" + +"What about seeing from a distance, and seeing the whole and not the +part?" retorted Larry. "What about a bird's eye view?" He had risen to +his feet and was looking down at her, feeling the moral support of +physical elevation. + +"That depends on the bird!" said Christian. "Now, if it were a goose, +for example! Like--Hi! Dogs! Look, Larry! Look! Down by the furze +bushes! A _huge_ rabbit!" + +The discussion closed abruptly, as such discussions will, when the +disputants are at the golden age, and views and opinions are winged, +and have not yet become ballast, or, which is worse, turned to +mooring-stones. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +The origin of the Coppinger's Court picnic was complicated and has +remained obscure. Whether its author had been Mrs. Mangan, or her +friend, Mrs. Whelply, or young Mr. Coppinger himself, was uncertain, +but the fact remained that a picnic, with indirect reference to the +blossoming of the bluebells (_i.e._, the wild hyacinths) was +decided upon, and that Larry, in the course of the visit that he never +failed to pay to the Mangan household, had placed the demesne of +Coppinger's Court at the disposal of the ladies of Cluhir, as a scene +for the entertainment. + +Larry's fidelity to the Mangans was a matter that was undoubtedly +something of a trial to his Aunt Freddy. She was too inflexibly +conscientious to attempt to deny, even to Lady Isabel, still less to +herself, that such fidelity was creditable, but she felt justified in +considering it superfluous; when, as now, it took the form of inviting +a party of unknown size, under the patronage of Mrs. Mangan, to accept +the Ownashee as its washpot, and (as it were) to cast forth its shoe +over Coppinger's Court, Aunt Freddy may be forgiven the manoeuvre that +arranged a _seance_ with her Dublin dentist for the date decided +upon for the picnic, and may be felt to deserve the sympathy of those +who can appreciate the inwardness of her position. And this last, +improbable though it may seem to some people, was made immensely more +difficult by the simple and irrelevant fact that she, on Sundays, +betook herself to the Knock Ceoil Protestant church, while Larry went +to the white chapel on the hill. It was to the grey, stone Protestant +church that Larry's forbears had gone for one hundred and fifty years +or more, even since the then reigning Coppinger had fallen in love +with an English heiress, and, agreeing with Henri Quatre, that Paris +was well worth a Mass, had 'verted to marry her. Never in living +memory had the congregations that filled full the white chapel on the +hill, included in their dutiful ranks any being of higher degree than +might have been found in those other congregations, that, some +nineteen hundred years earlier, were gathered in the hills of Galilee; +those humble crowds who came to hear Christ preach, of whom it was +said that they were of the common people, and that they heard Him +gladly. Miss Frederica was as good a Christian--in some ways probably +a better one--as might have been found in the white chapel, but it was +impossible for her not to feel, what was, indeed, felt, with a +singular mixture of satisfaction and disapproval, by the majority of +the white chapel's congregation, that Larry's parents had, socially, +been ill-advised when they "made a Roman of him." In the creed of Mary +Twomey, and her fellows, it was only in conformity with natural law in +the spiritual world that ginthry should go to church, and the like of +herself to chapel. She, no more than Frederica, could subdue the +feeling of incongruity imparted by the fact of Master Larry and +herself worshipping together; it was as though, if she had run into +the kitchen to get a sup of hot water, or the wetting of her mouth o' +tay, she had found him sitting among the maids in the servants' hall. +Mary Twomey, and her fellows, would have indignantly repudiated the +idea of taking service with one of their own church. "No! Thank God! I +never sank to that!" Mary had once said, when such had been imputed to +her. There was no question of religion in it. Merely of fitness. So +inveterate in the older Ireland is, or was, what Christian might have +considered to be the outcome of The Spirit of the Nation, but that, in +this special connection, may with, perhaps, greater accuracy, be +ascribed to the aristocratic instinct. + +Something like a sheet of thin ice had come into existence between +Larry's life and that of his aunt. It had come gradually, almost +imperceptibly. There had been a time, after his First Communion, when +Larry had confided in Frederica. He had even told her of the anxieties +he had felt before his first Confession, and of how difficult he had +found it to decide upon the sins that he could, without arrogance lay +to his own charge. He told her that he had invented several crimes, in +order to dignify the occasion. Frederica wondered secretly how that +charming Jesuit Father, to whom, at Monkshurst, she had been +introduced as her nephew's spiritual director, had dealt with the +sinner; but this, Larry had not divulged. There were, from that time +forward, an increasing number of things that Larry did not divulge to +his Aunt Freddy, and the sheet of ice slowly became thicker. It was +"the religious aspect of the case," as Miss Coppinger complained to +Mr. Fetherston, that made it so impossible for her to speak her mind +to Larry about the Mangans. + +"Do you remember you advised us to send him to Oxford?" she reproached +him. "I'm afraid it has only had the effect of making him take his +religion more seriously--for which, I suppose, one _ought_ to be +thankful--" + +"And why not?" the Reverend Charles had replied. "They say all roads +lead to Rome, so no doubt the converse holds good, and out of Rome +some road must lead to Heaven!" + +The Reverend Charles was pleased with his aphorism, but Frederica +could not enjoy it. Not even Mr. Fetherston could console her on this +matter. + +"His very niceness and simplicity make him a prey for undesirables," +she mourned, "and he has that peculiar gift of making every one fond +of him. I suppose it is his looks--" + +"Then you cannot blame the undesirables," her rector responded. + +Larry's looks had, certainly, a spell that was something in excess of +what may be called their "face-value." Though legal manhood was so +soon to be his status, he had still some of the radiance of childhood +about him. His hair was of the same pure and infantine gold that it +had been when he charged down on the Eldest Statesman on the +stepping-stones of the Ownashee; his blue eyes had lost none of their +candour; the touch of gilding on his upper lip was effective only at +short range, but, when taken in connection with a very white and even +set of teeth, and a beaming and ever-ready smile, it carried +considerable weight. His fair skin had not yet taken on its summer +scorch of carmine, and its soft and babyish pinkness softened the +salience of his short nose, and induced the critic to condone the want +of decision in his chin. + +"Not a _handsome_ boy, exactly," people said, "but," and here +people would smile relentingly, "if he had been a girl, one would +certainly _quite_ have said 'pretty'--so attractive-looking, and +so--so clean!" which might seem to be the condemnation of faint +praise, but was, in reality, merely the tribute that Larry's +new-minted goldenness of aspect startled from the beholder. + +He was no more than five foot nine in height, which was a trial that +at times he felt deeply, but there are practical advantages for a +young man who rides, in being able to do so at something considerably +under eleven stone. At boxing, rowing, and games, what he lost in +weight and reach, he made up for in speed and elasticity and +endurance. Finally, it may be said that his figure had the gift of +making old clothes like new, and new clothes look unaggressive, and +when to these attributes is added a faculty for wearing hunting kit +with accuracy and finish, it will be understood that Larry had early +achieved standing in his college. + +The Cluhir picnic, that had so justifiably perturbed Miss Frederica, +debouched, like a mighty river, from its wagonettes and outside cars, +upon the lawns of Coppinger's Court, at about four of the clock, of a +beautiful, balmy May afternoon, and to Larry fell the task of deciding +upon its course of procedure. Clad in very white flannels and a +prismatic blazer, and looking, as his most tepid supporter would have +to allow, a picture of cleanliness, he advanced upon Mrs. Mangan's +wagonette, and proffered an arm, fortunately of steel, to facilitate +her descent. The five years that had elapsed since Larry was her +guest, had effected less change in her than in him. Save that the +bisonian fringe now held a grey hair or two in its dark depths, and +the curves, that had suggested a Chesterfield sofa to her young +friend, were now something more opulent than they had been, Mrs. +Mangan's progress along the corridor of eternity had made no +perceptible mark on her. Still, in assisting her descent from a high +wagonette, an arm of steel was not out of place. + +Larry was at the age that, believing itself critical to the point of +extinction of the rejected, yet accepts with enthusiasm any female +creature that can wear a smart hat with assurance, and wag a +flattering tongue with address. The Cluhir ladies were proficient in +these arts. Mr. Coppinger was congratulated on his weather; arranged +by his skill, poured forth of his benevolence! On his demesne, so +green with young leaves, so gay with spring flowers! Kind Mr. +Coppinger to have created them in such profusion! And what warmth was +there in the Coppinger's Court sun! The second rate luminary dedicated +to Cluhir was no more than a candle to it! Mr. Coppinger's Ant was +enquired for (this, it should, perhaps, be explained, referred to +Frederica, and had no entomological application) suitable regrets at +her absence from home were expressed, with a delicate implication that +with such a host, and in such weather, the loss was the Ant's, and was +practically negligible, so far as the ladies of Cluhir were concerned. +And who were these, coming up the path from Mr. Coppinger's lovely +river? Ah, yes, the youngest Miss Talbot-Lowry, of course, and which +brother was it? Oh, the youngest one? Mrs. Cassidy had thought the +youngest of Lady Isabel's family was a twins--or _were_ a twins? +Which ought she to say? + +"Well, this is half of it, anyhow!" says young Mr. Coppinger, +facetiously, with which Mrs. Cassidy, like the Miss Flamboroughs, +thought she would have died with laughing. + +With the arrival of the youngest Miss Talbot-Lowry, and half the +twins, a slight change fell upon Mr. Coppinger's voluble guests. A +stiffening faint, almost imperceptible, yet electric, enforced the +circle round Larry. Even Mrs. Whelply's confluent simper, that +suggested an incessant dripping from the tap of loving kindness, +failed a little. A young Mr. Coppinger was a simple affair, but a Miss +Talbot-Lowry, however young, might want watching. + +The youngest Miss Talbot-Lowry was, happily for herself, quite unaware +of the estimation in which she was held. She had, like Larry, that +quality of selflessness that is so rare and so infinitely engaging; +what was she (she would have thought) that respect should be paid to +her? It was a tenet of her eccentric creed that age was not only +honourable but was also pathetic, so, when the picnic at large had +begun its leisurely advance through the woods to the promised land, +Christian selected the oldest and least promising of the Cluhir +matrons for her special attention, and made herself so agreeable to +her, that Barty Mangan, "mooching" (as his mother afterwards +reproached him) solitary, in the rear of the procession, found himself +in the remarkable position of wishing that he were his own great-aunt, +Mrs. Cantwell. + +Barty Mangan's opportunities for meeting Christian had been but few, +but they had sufficed to light a fatal star in his sky, and to induce +in him, when, as now, he found himself in her vicinity, an attitude +towards the rest of the world that justified his mother's employment +of the verb to "mooch" (a word that may be taken as implying a moody +and furtive aloofness). + +There was, Mrs. Mangan was pleased to observe, no mooching about her +daughter. On the launching of the picnic, Tishy had immediately +assumed the lead, with an _aplomb_ and assurance justified by her +family's special intimacy with young Mr. Coppinger, and all who knew +Tishy, knew also that she meant to keep it. Dr. Mangan had not +over-stated the case when, three years earlier, he had said to himself +that she was a right-down handsome girl. Now, at twenty-one and a +half, his paternal pride was well justified. Like him, she was tall +and strongly built, tall, that is to say, for a class that rarely +excels in height, and Tishy's five and a half feet enabled her to look +down on most of her friends. Her broad, dark eyebrows grew straight +and low over brilliant grey eyes, and were nearly reached by thick +upward curled black eyelashes. If her mouth was large, it was +well-shaped, and if her nose did not possess the classic severity of +her brother's, its challenging tilt was not unattractive. To these +charms must be added shining masses of dark hair, and a complexion of +so vivid a tone, that it seemed sometimes as though a fog of carmine +coloured the very atmosphere about her glowing face. She radiated +vitality, the richness and abundance of high summer; she suggested a +darkly gorgeous peacock-butterfly, and in the delicate radiance of the +spring woods, she seemed out of key with their slender elegance of +leaf and spray the soft reticence of their faint greens and greys. + +It is indeed hardly fair to expect of Tishy Mangan that she should be +worthy of such a setting as southern Irish woods can offer in the +month of May. It is the month of the Mother of God, and in the fair +demesne of Coppinger's Court, Heaven had truly visited the earth, and +was chiefly and specially manifest in the Wood of the Ownashee. The +trees stood with their feet bathed in the changeful, passionate blue +of the wild hyacinths, a blue that lay sometimes in deep pools, +sometimes in thin drifts, like the azure of far skies; the pale ferns +rose in it, "like sweet thoughts in a dream"; the grey stems of the +beeches were chequered with the sunlight that their thin branches and +little leaves tried in vain to baffle and keep at bay. From the unseen +river came varying voices; sometimes a soft chuckle that had the +laughing heart of the spring in it, sometimes a rich and rushing +harmony, that told of distant heights and the wind on the hills. There +was a blackbird who was whistling over and over again the opening bar +of the theme of a presto, that, only last week, Larry had heard, +whipped out with frolic glee by the violins of a London orchestra. He +wondered if, with such themes, it is the blackbirds who inspire the +musicians, or if both have access to the same secret well of music, in +which each can dip his little bucket, and bring listeners in the outer +world a taste of the living water of melody. But since (in spite of +the Artistic Temperament) he was a normal boy, what he said was: + +"Stunning! Isn't it!" while he stood still, waiting, for the hidden +artist to favour them with another flourish of that gay string of +jewels. "He's 'recapturing' it all right, eh?" + +The much-quoted quotation passed by Tishy as the idle wind. Even had +she recognised the allusion, she would have considered the +professional raptures of a blackbird a rather dull subject of +conversation. The gallants of Cluhir did not deal in such matters in +_tete a tete_ with her, and she thought, as she had thought at +the children's party, long ago, that Larry, if not quite a bore, +might, in spite of Coppinger's Court, rather easily become one. + +"Oh, he's stunning enough!" she replied, with her full-throated, +contralto laugh; "It must be his first cousin we have in the garden +behind Number Six! Dad says he doesn't know, does him or me sing the +loudest!" + +By Jove! She sings! thought Larry (as he was meant to think). Of +course! What a fool he was to have forgotten it! And as, at this +period of his career, of the three arts, who were always riding a pace +in his soul, Music, Painting, and Literature, Music happened to be the +leading horse, Larry looked upon Tishy with eyes in which a new ardour +had awakened, and proceeded with his accustomed speed to mature the +details of the concert upon which he had, during the last sixty +seconds, enthusiastically decided. + +Old Mrs. Cantwell, although unpromising of aspect, was by no means as +deplorable, socially, as Christian had assumed her to be. The fact +that she was the untrammelled owner of a soundly-invested fifteen +thousand pounds, that she was the aunt whom Dr. Mangan delighted to +honour, combined with the allied fact that she had paid for the hiring +of the picnic-bearing wagonette, gave her an importance that could be +undervalued only by one as ignorant of the greater concerns of life as +was Christian. Mrs. Cantwell accepted the companionship of the +youngest Miss Talbot-Lowry as no more than her due, and the thought +that compassion had prompted its bestowal, was very far from her mind. +None the less, the Noah's Ark principles that governed implicitly, if +not ostensibly Cluhir entertainments of this nature, were firmly +embedded in her being, and she was entirely aware of the furtive +presence of Barty, at the rear of the procession of which she and +Christian formed the last couple. + +"Now, my dear," she observed, while she and Christian paced side by +side, along the river path, "you shouldn't be wasting time on an old +woman like me! When I was young, we'd have called this a Two and Two +party, and I promise you that the likes o' you and me wouldn't have +been reckoned a proper couple at all! Not when _I_ was a girl!" + +"_I_ should have said that you and I were irreproachably proper, +Mrs. Cantwell," responded Christian, gaily; "it isn't very kind of you +to say that we aren't behaving as we should!" She laughed into Mrs. +Cantwell's old face, and she, being quite unused to girls who took the +trouble to flirt with her, began to think that Frankie Mangan (thus +she designated her nephew, the doctor) was right when he said that the +youngest of the Talbot-Lowrys was the best of the bunch. + +"Ho! Ho! Ho!" she said, with a laugh like the whinny of an old horse; +"it's a long time since I kicked my heels over anything higher than a +hearth-rug! But I can tell you, my dear, I was a good warrant for a +play-boy when I was your age! There wasn't a young girl, no, nor a +young man either, that I couldn't dance down if I gave my mind to it!" + +Christian's response was satisfactory, and Mrs. Cantwell, moved to +give a sample of her bygone prowess, executed a hippopotamus-like hop +and shuffle among the rustling, orange beech leaves of last year. + +"Polkas and Mazoorkas!" she exclaimed. "Them was all the go in my +time! Come on here, Barty, ye omadhaun! I believe I could dance you +off those long legs of yours this minute, if I was to give me mind to +it!" + +Barty, thus adjured by his great-aunt, drew near. Mrs. Cantwell was +not a person to be lightly disobeyed, but his dark eyes were full of +apprehension. What might Aunt Bessie not say! She was incalculable, +terrible. + +There are old people who appear to find an indemnity for their lost +youth in permitting to themselves, in dealing with later generations, +a scarifying freedom of humour in connection with subjects which once +they held sacred (for there are few souls that have not at some time +enshrined a tender emotion). + +Barty had suffered before now from Aunt Bessy, and he thought that if +she made of him an offence to Miss Talbot-Lowry, he would straightway +rush into the river and drown himself. Aunt Bessy, however, +potentially Rabelaisian though she might be, was perfectly aware of +the fact that there is a time to speak and a time to keep silence. + +"See here, Barty," she said, "let you go on now, and tell your mother +not to be waiting tea for me. I'll take me own time. Tell her never +fear I'll turn up, only I like to go me own pace!" She turned to +Christian. "Go on you too, my dear; I'm well enough pleased with me +own company, and I hate to be delaying you. I'll sit down for a while +and admire the scenery." + +Thus did Aunt Bessy, as she complacently told herself, watch over the +interests of her great-nephew, and though her method was crude, it +indisputably achieved its object. + +Christian and Barty Mangan walked on in silence that was made +companionable by the gurgling whisper of the river behind its screen +of hazels and alders; a whisper broken now and again by the tittering +laugh of the flying water over a shallow place, like someone with a +good story that he cannot quite venture to tell out loud. + +Barty was saying to himself, distractedly: "What'll I say to her? +What'll I talk to her about?" with each repetition winding himself, +like a cocoon, deeper in webs of shyness. + +Christian's social perceptions were hypersensitive, and the _cris de +coeur_ of her suffering companion were only too audible to her +spiritual ear. At eighteen, the quality of mercy has seldom developed; +the young demand mercy, they expect to receive, not to bestow it; but +in this girl was something that made her different from her fellows. +It was as though a soul more tempered, more instructed, more subtle +and refined, had been given to her, than is vouchsafed to the majority +of the poor creatures who are sent into this difficult world with an +equipment that rarely meets its demands. + +This is a long-winded way of saying that Christian realised that she +had to restore confidence in Larry's young friend, and that she +proceeded forthwith to do so. She would have laughed at the thought +that anyone could be afraid of her, but she felt instinctively that a +soothing monologue, a sort of cradle-song, was what the occasion +demanded; so she began to speak of the bluebells, the woods, the +weather, saying with a sort of languid simplicity, the things that the +moment suggested; "babbling," as she subsequently assured Judith, "of +green fields," until she had so lulled and bored him, that in +self-defence he produced an observation. + +"D'you read, Miss Christian?" said Barty, bringing forth his mouse +with an abrupt and mountainous effort. + +Christian repressed the reply that she had possessed the +accomplishment for some years, and asked for further information. + +"Poetry," said Barty, largely; "it's--it's the only reading I care +for. I thought you might like it--" he added, hurriedly, and was again +wrapped in the cocoon. + +"Oh, I do, very much," said Christian, trying hard not to quench the +smoking flax; "I've learnt quantities by heart, and Larry is always +lending me new books of poetry. He says that you and he discuss it +together." + +"I never knew one like him!" said Barty, with sudden energy. "There's +no subject at all that he's not interested in!" In the heat of his +enthusiasm for Larry, the cocoon wrappings were temporarily +shrivelled. He turned his dark short-sighted eyes on Christian, and +took up his parable with excitement. + +"Did he tell you he's learning Irish? I'll engage it'll be no trouble +to _him_!" + +"He's always getting hold of new ideas," said Christian; "I wish +_I_ could learn Irish." + +"There's a branch of the Gaelic League in Cluhir," said Barty, +eagerly. "There are a lot learning Irish. I suppose you wouldn't be +disposed to become a member, Miss Christian?" He gazed at her +imploringly. + +"I don't know if I should be allowed," said Christian, hesitatingly. +"You see I've only just come home. I've been at school in Paris for +the last two years--" + +A memory of a ferocious denunciation of the Gaelic League by her +father came to her; she wondered what Barty would do if she offered +him one of the profane imitations of the Major that had earned for her +the laurels of the schoolroom. + +"Oh, I'm quite sure I mightn't become a Gaelic Leaguer!" she repeated, +beginning to laugh, while samples of her father's rhetoric welled up +in her mind. + +Barty thought he had never seen anything so enchanting as her face, as +she looked at him, laughing, with wavering lights, filtered through +young beech leaves, in her eyes. He felt a delirious desire to show +her that he was not a tongue-tied fool; that he also, like Larry, was +a man of ideas. + +"I wish to God!" he said, with the disordered violence of a shy man, +"that there was anny league or society in Ireland that would override +class prejudice, and oblitherate religious bigotry!" + +He had snatched a paragraph from his last address to the Gaelic +Leaguers of Cluhir, and with it was betrayed into the pronunciation +that mastered him in moments of excitement. + +Christian said to herself that she thanked heaven Judith wasn't there +to make her laugh. + +"I don't _think_ I'm a religious bigot," she said, with a faint +tremor in her voice, "but one never knows!" Her head was bent down, +the brim of her large hat hid her face. + +Barty was stricken. What devil had possessed him? She was hurt! She +was a Protestant, and in his cursed folly he had made her think he was +reproaching her for Bigotry. Good God! What could he do? + +Two emotions, hung, as it were, on hair-triggers, held the stage. In +Christian, the fiend of laughter held sway, in poor Barty, the angel +of tears. It was perhaps well for them both that their next step in +advance took them round a bend in the path, and brought them face to +face with the picnic. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +Young Mr. Coppinger had been well inspired in his selection of a site +for the entertainment. The trees along the river's bank had ceased for +a space, leaving a level ring of grass, whereon certain limestone +boulders had scattered themselves, with the deliberate intention, as +it would seem, of providing seats for picnickers. Across that fairy +circle of greenness a small vassal-stream bore its tribute waters to +the Ownashee, with as much dignity as it had been able to assume in +the forty level yards that lay between its suzerain and the steep glen +down which it had flung itself. Not only had young Mr. Coppinger been +so gracious as to provide this setting for the revel, but he was even +now sacrificing a spotless pair of white flannel trousers to the needs +of the company, and had concentrated on the cajolery of the fire, +which, obedient to the etiquette that rules picnic fires, refused to +consume any fuel less stimulating than matches. Other of the young +gentlemen of the party, including the half-twin, Mr. George +Talbot-Lowry (now a sub-lieut. R.N.) were detailed to gather sticks, a +duty that was so arranged as to involve, with each load of firewood, +the jumping of the vassal-stream, and thus gave opportunity for a +display akin to that of the jungle-cocks, who, naturalists inform us, +leap emulatively before their ladies. Prominent among these was that +youth who, as a medical student, had inspired Miss Mangan in +flapperhood, with an admiration for his gifts, intellectual and +physical, that was only equalled by his own appreciation of these +advantages. His opinion remained unchanged, but he was beginning to +fear that Tishy's taste was deteriorating. None sprang more lightly +across that little stream, or commented more humorously on men and +things, than Captain Edward Cloherty, R.A.M.C.; yet Miss Mangan, to +whom these exercises were dedicated, remained oblivious of them and +aloof, apparently wholly absorbed by Martha-like attentions with +regard to the public welfare, and particularly those connected with +the fire. It was not for nothing that Tishy had had to rise early on +many a winter morning to see that her father should go forth to his +work suitably warmed and fed. Now, with scathing criticisms of the +methods of Mr. Coppinger, she swept him from his position as stoker, +and, as by magic, or so it seemed to him, the sticks blazed, the +kettle began to sing. Miss Mangan's skill was not limited to the +prosaic lighting of material fires only. With the two most +distinguished young men of the party at her feet, she rose to the +height of all her various powers. The fire roared and crackled, the +kettle bubbled, and Tishy's grey and gleaming glances through the +smoke were like a succession of boxes of matches, cast upon the +responsive fires of Larry's and Georgy's holiday hearts. + +The young May moon has often been a factor in affairs of the heart +whose importance cannot be ignored. It is true that on this especial +afternoon the mischief might seem to have been begun before she could, +strictly, have been held responsible; none the less her madness must +have been in the air, otherwise it is difficult to account for the +joint and simultaneous overthrow of two young gentlemen of taste and +quality, by Miss Tishy Mangan. + +Georgy, aged but 19, just home from far and forlorn seas, with, as the +poet says, a heart for any fate, might have been excused for +swallowing any good provided for him by the gods, whole, and without +criticism, but for Mr. St. Lawrence Coppinger, lately come of age, a +man of taste, endowed with special _finesse_ of feeling, it might +have been expected that a highly-coloured peacock butterfly would have +had but scant appeal. In fact, one is driven back upon the young May +Moon as the sole plausible explanation of the fact that, on that +afternoon of bewitchment, Tishy Mangan went to Larry's head. + +These temporary aberrations are afflictions for which the most refined +young men must occasionally be prepared, and Larry's overthrow was not +without justification. Quite apart from her looks--and anyone would +have been forced to admit that they were undeniable--there was her +voice, the true contralto _timbre_, thick and mellow, dark and +sweet, like heather honey, he thought, while he and Georgy sprawled on +the grass at her feet (and she had good feet) making very indifferent +jokes, in that exaggerated travesty of an Irish brogue which is often +all that an English school will leave with Irish boys, and vicing with +each other in the folly proper to such an occasion. + +"I don't see your shoe-buckles!" Larry said, looking from her feet to +her lips, with a meaning and impudent lift of his blue eyes. "Have you +given up wearing them?" + +Tishy's colour deepened; she remembered instantly what she was meant +to remember. + +"You're regretting the choice you made, are you?" she said, with a +toss of her head. "Never fear! The buckles will be there when they're +wanted!" + +"Don't trouble about them!" says Larry, tremendously pleased with his +success as a flirtatious man of the world; "I don't think they will be +required!" + +It is necessary to have attained to a reasonably advanced age to be +able to recognise pathos in the fatuities that so frequently form a +feature of love's young dream. Christian, listening with one ear to +her brother and cousin, while into the other the genuine idiom of her +native land flowed, ardently, from the now unsealed lips of Barty +Mangan, began to wonder why the boys were talking like stage Irishmen; +Georgy, she knew, was idiot enough for anything, but she had to admit +to herself that Larry, also, was rather overdoing it. Christian was +able to feel amused, but she also felt, quite illogically, that what +had been distaste for Tishy Mangan was rapidly deepening into dislike. + +The picnic raged on, with prodigious eatings and drinkings, with +capsizings of teapots in full sail, with disastrous slaughterings of +insects (disastrous to plates and tablecloths rather than to the +insects) with facetious doings with heated tea-spoons and pellets of +bread, with, in short, all that Mrs. Mangan and her fellow hostesses +expected of a truly prosperous picnic. + +Captain Cloherty, alone, of all the company, failed to contribute his +share to the sum of success. He sat silent, a thing of gloom, the +lively angle of whose waxed, red moustache only accentuated the +downward droop of the mouth beneath it. But the skeleton at the feast +has its uses, if only as a contrast, and Mrs. Mangan, who was more +observant than she appeared to be, noted the gloom with a gratified +eye, and being entirely aware of its cause, said to herself with +satisfaction: + +"Ha, ha, me young man!" + +This picnic was, in truth, made ever memorable in the circle of Mrs. +Mangan's friends by reason of the triumph of Tishy. + +"Ah, that was the day she cot the two birds under the one stone!" +Great-Aunt Cantwell (who did not care for her great-niece) was +accustomed to say. "Well! Such goings-on! And after all, Tishy's +nothing so much out of the way, for all Frankie Mangan thinks the +world should die down before her!" + +The two birds referred to were still fluttering round their captor, +when a new element was added to the party in the large presence of +"Frankie Mangan" himself. The Big Doctor approached slowly, +elephant-like in his noiseless, rolling gait, impressive, as is an +elephant, in size, in the feeling he imparted of restrained strength, +of intense intelligence, masked, as in an elephant, with benevolence, +and held watchfully in reserve. + +He now advanced upon the scene of festivity with purpose in his +manner. + +"Now, ladies! Let me tell you I'm come on a very unpopular errand! To +apply the closure! I think you're all sitting out here long enough for +the time of year. Remember it's only May!" + +"We're more likely to remember it's Mayn't!" retorted Mrs. Whelply, +who was a recognised wit, and opponent of the Big Doctor. "Isn't it +enough for him to bully us when we're sick, but he comes tormenting us +when we're well, too!" + +Thus she appealed to her fellow-matrons, looking round upon them for +support with a festive eye. + +"You'll none of you be well long, if you don't mind yourselves!" +answered, with equal spirit, the Doctor, with a quiet eye on his +daughter and her attendant swains. + +"Why then I have a sore throat this minute with scolding Mr. Coppinger +for the nonsense he's talking!" declared Mrs. Whelply. "Asking me to +sing a cawmic at the concert he says he's going to have! There's no +fear but whatever _I_ sing will be cawmic enough!" + +"I'm sure I'll have great pleasure in cauterising you!" responded the +Doctor, gallantly; "but if you'll take my advice now, you won't want +so much of it later on!" + +"I thought you were going to take me on the river," said Tishy in a +low voice to Larry, looking resentfully at her father. + +"I'll tell you what we'll do," said Larry, quickly; "much better than +the river--we'll go back to the house and dance! I'll fix it up with +your father!" + +"Good egg!" said Sub-Lieut. Talbot-Lowry, with seaman-like decision, +"Miss Mangan will kindly note all waltzes are reserved for use of +naval officers!" + +"Miss Mangan will kindly do no such thing!" returned that young lady, +dealing a flash from between her curled eyelashes that put the naval +officer temporarily out of action, so devastating was its effect. + +Had not Frederica Coppinger, resting in her club in Dublin, after a +severe afternoon with her dentist, some intuition, some +spirit-warning, of what was befalling at the home of her ancestors? I +believe that those spear-thrusts of nerve-pain that assailed her just +before dinner, must have been the result of the wireless summons of +distress sent forth to her by her upper-housemaid. + +"What next, I wonder, will Master Larry be asking for?" said the upper +housemaid to the cook. "The drawing-room carpet pitched into the +study, and Miss Coppinger's own room turned upside down for the +riff-raff of Cluhir to be powdering their noses in! 'Haven't she no +powder?' says they. 'No matter,' says the Doctor's daughter, 'sure I +have a book of it in me little bag!'" + +"I wouldn't at all doubt her!" said the cook, saturninely, "But what's +the drawn'-room carpet to conjuring a supper out of me pocket in five +minutes? I ask you that, Eliza Hosford!" + +None the less, with that deep loyalty to the honour of the house that +is a feature in Irish domestic life as wonderful as it is touching, +the staff of Coppinger's Court were resolved that--as they say in +China--the face of Master Larry should not be blackened, and The +Riff-Raff of Cluhir were served with a ceremony and a success that +left nothing to be desired. + +Dr. Mangan sat in a very large armchair in front of a big fire of +logs, in the hall, and smoked meditatively, and was seemingly quite +unaware of the couples who moved past him between the dances, passing +out through the open hall-door into the moon-lit May night. He did not +even raise an eyelid when his daughter sailed by him, as she did many +times, with the ostentation of the young lady who is aware that her +prowess is the subject of comment, in company, alternately, with the +two captives of her bow and spear who had offered so feeble a +resistance to those weapons. Tishy and her father alike ascribed her +victory to that redoubtable and already creditably battle-scarred bow +and spear; they neither of them recognised the acknowledgments that +were due to a certain powerful ally, the May moon. She had stolen up +the sky at the back of the woods. The first Larry knew of her was the +vast, incredible, pale disc behind the topmost boughs of the pine +trees, so near that it seemed to him as though the crooked black +branches alone were holding her back, and that her white fire that was +pouring through them must consume them, "and then it will be our +turn," he said, seriously, and without preamble, to Tishy. + +"Our turn for what?" asked Tishy, very naturally. + +"Our turn to be resolved into moonshine. You'll see me fading away +into silver smoke in a minute," replied Larry. "Let's get out of this, +I'm getting frightened! Hold my hand tight!" + +"Go on with your nonsense!" said Tishy. "And will you tell me how can +I hold your hand when it's round my waist?" + +Which was reasonable enough, and may be taken as a sufficient +indication of what the moon was already responsible for. + +A point of red light moved in the darkness above the seat under the +laurels, to which they were repairing, and the scent of a Virginian +cigarette was wafted to them. + +"Who's that?" Tishy whispered, pressing nearer to Larry; but she was +agreeably certain that it was the gloomy and misanthropic Captain +Cloherty, whose place of refuge they had invaded. + +Christian, meanwhile, unlike Captain Cloherty, was conscientiously +endeavouring to enjoy herself, and was finding that the wheels of the +chariot of pleasure drave heavily. That Barty Mangan was a good dancer +was an alleviation, but among those stigmatised by Eliza Hosford as +the riff-raff of Cluhir, those now forgotten measures of the first +years of this century, the prancing barn-dance, the capering +_pas-de-quatre_, lent themselves to a violence that, even at the +uncritical age of eighteen, Christian found overpowering. "They danced +like the Priests of Baal," she told Judith. "One expected to see them +cut themselves with knives!" + +The information that the dog-cart had come for her was of the nature +of a release. Barty put her into it. The May moon shone on his pale +face as he looked up at Christian, and reverently took her hand in +farewell. She had begun to find his dark and humble devotion +oppressive; she liked him, which did not prevent her from thanking +heaven when he released her hand from a pressure that had lasted +longer than he knew. He stood on the gravel and watched the departing +dog-cart vanish, like a ghostly thing, into the elusive mist of +moonlight. The May moon, now sailing full overhead, looked with a +broad satisfaction on the hardest hit of her victims. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +At intervals in all histories there comes a pause, in which the +moralities proper to the occasion are assembled, expounded and +expanded. Such a moment might now seem to have arrived, its theme +being the grain-of-mustard-seed-like character of the Cluhir picnic, +as compared with the events that subsequently dwelt in its branches, +nesting there, and raising up other events that flew far and wide, +farther and wider than they can here be followed. But since moralities +appeal only to the moral (to whom they are superfluous) it seems +advisable to proceed at once to the primary result, which was the +concert, that sprang like a Phoenix from the ashes of that fire on +which the picnic kettle was boiled. + +The scheme had various appeals for its two chief promoters, young Mr. +Coppinger and Sub. Lieut. Talbot-Lowry, R.N. Immanent in it was the +necessity for frequent, almost for daily, visits to No. 6, The Mall, +Cluhir. For the former of these gentlemen, whose acquaintance with the +Mangan family was now of long, if of intermittent, familiarity, these +visits afforded a less thrilling emotion than they held for the +latter, who found himself honoured and welcomed in a degree to which +he was quite unaccustomed at home. Larry was not quite sure that he +approved of this blaze of social success for his young cousin. It is +one thing to receive, languidly, the adulation of those in whom such +adulation may be regarded as an indication of a widening horizon; but +when an equal veneration is lavished upon the junior and disdained +play-fellow of earlier years, the result is often a reconsideration of +values. The May madness that rose like a mist from the bluebells in +the woods of the Ownashee, and culminated in the magical light of the +full moon, began to lift from the spirit of young Mr. Coppinger, +leaving him, as he formulated it to himself (and found much +satisfaction in the formula) bereft, bored, and benignant. He was +quite prepared to retire gracefully in favour of Georgy, and was +pleased with the thought that his interest in Tishy had been merely +the outcome of a mood--_l'apres-midi d'un faune_--so to speak. +There was something artistic in these transient emotions, and his +future, as at present determined, was to be devoted to art; certainly +not to Tishy Mangan. Yes, he would leave Tishy to Georgy; all but her +voice; in that, as an artist, he still retained an interest, the +interest of the _impresario_, whose search for stars is as +absorbing as is that of the astronomer in pursuits of new worlds. + +The passion and energy of the promoter are, it may be supposed, born +in human beings in a certain proportion to those who are to become +their victims. In Larry, both qualities were highly developed, and in +no way did he prove the genuineness of his heaven-given _flair_ +more surely than in his discovery and annexation of Christian, as that +rare and precious thing, a sympathetic and capable accompanist. + +But although the thought of dwelling upon this and other of the +details of the Cluhir concert, is appealing, it must be dismissed. So +much has already been said in the hope that some further indications +as to the character and conduct of some of our young friends may have +been deduced; but now, certain glossings upon the household of Mount +Music must be inflicted, since it is with it, rather than with the +capabilities of young Mr. Coppinger's troupe, that we are mainly +occupied. + +It is not easy to say whether the process of emergence from the sheath +of childhood, a condition that has characteristics more or less common +to us all, is more interesting to feel than to observe. In Christian's +case, the interest was felt exclusively by herself, her family being +healthily absorbed in the conjugation of the three primary verbs, to +be, to do, and to have, in relation, exclusively, to themselves, and +that merely from the skin outwards. Soul-processes and developments +were unknown to them in life, and were negligible in books. Lady +Isabel pursued her blameless way, doing nothing in particular, +diligently and unpunctually, and spending much time in writing long +and loving letters to those of her family who were no longer beneath +her wing, in that particular type of large loose handwriting whose +indefinite spikes stab to the heart any hope of literary interest. Who +shall say that she did not do her duty according to her lights? But +she was certainly quite unconscious of such matters as soul-processes. + +Alone of the Mount Music children, Christian was aware of an inner +personality to be considered, some spirit that heard and responded to +those voices and intimations that, as a little child, she had accepted +as a commonplace of every day. By the time that she was sixteen the +voices had been discouraged, if not stilled, their intimations dulled; +but she had discovered her soul, and had discovered also, that it had +been born on the farther side of the river of life from the souls of +her brethren, and that although, for the first stages, the stream was +narrow, and the way on one bank very like that on the other, the two +paths were divided by deep water, and the river widened with the +passing years. + +Richard, pursuing the usual course of Irish eldest sons, had adopted +the profession least adapted for young men of small means, and large +spending capacity, and had gone into his father's old regiment. John, +the zealot of an earlier day, was at Oxford, considering the Church; +Georgy's career has been announced, and the remaining twin had, with +the special predisposition of his family towards financial failure, +selected the profession of land-agent, in a country in which +peasant-proprietorship was already in the air, and would soon become +an accomplished fact. + +There remains, to complete the family history, Judith, and she, now +aged twenty-one, was possibly the sole member of the house of +Talbot-Lowry for whom a successful future might confidently be +anticipated. Judith, a buccaneer by nature and by practice, was +habitually engaged in swash-bucklering it on a round of visits. She +was good-looking, tall, talkative, and an able player of all the games +proper to the state of life to which she had been called. She was a +competent guest, giving as much entertainment as she received, being +of those who contribute as efficiently indirectly, as directly, to +conversation, and are normally involved in one of those skirmishes of +the heart, that cannot be described as engagements, but that, none the +less, invest their heroines with an atmosphere of respect, and provide +hostesses with subjects of anxiety and interest. At an early age, +Christian was promoted by her elder sister to the position of +confidante, and justified the promotion by the happy mixture of +sympathy and cynicism with which she received the confidences. She was +now well versed in the brief passions that, beginning at the second or +third dance of a regimental ball, would, like some night-flowering +tropic blossom, arrive at full splendour by supper time, and would +expire languorously, to the strains of "God save the King." Christian, +though young, was, as had been said, a capable audience. She could +listen, with the severe and youthful grace that seemed to set her a +little apart from others of her standing, to the feats of Judith and +her fellow-blackguards, savouring and appraising the absurdities, and +her comments upon them were offered with a sympathetic and skilled +comprehension that excused her in Judith's eyes for her lack of +ambition to emulate them. + +Dick Talbot-Lowry had ceased to boast of the predominance of the +masculine gender among his offsprings, and rarely alluded to his sons +without coupling with their names a vigorous statement of how far in +excess of their value was their cost, usually ending with an enquiry +into the dark rulings of Providence, who had bestowed an expensive +family with one hand, and with the other had taken away the means of +supporting it. Dick was sixty-four now, an unhappy moment in a dashing +and artless career, with the shadow of advancing old age blighting and +reproving the still ardent enjoyment of the pleasures of youth. + +"I'm an old man now!" Dick would say, without either feeling or +meaning it, and would bitterly resent the failure of his sons to +contradict a statement with which they were in complete agreement. +Only Christian, "of all his halls had nursed," tried to maintain her +father in a good conceit of himself, and to "rise his heart"; but +there are few hearts for which it is more difficult to perform that +office than the heart of a man, who, having ever (as King David says) +taken pleasure in the strength of horses, and delighted in his own +legs, is beginning to find that the former have become too strong, and +the latter too weak for either comfort or confidence. + +And not these things only were troubling Dick. The common lot of Irish +landlords, and Pterodactyli, was upon him, and he was in process of +becoming extinct. It was his fate to see his income gradually +diminishing, being eaten away, as the sea eats away a bulwark-less +shore, by successive Acts of Parliament, and the machinery they +created, "for the purpose," as old Lord Ardmore was fond of +fulminating, of "pillaging loyal Peter in order to pamper rebel Paul!" +The opinion of very old, and intolerant, and indignant peers cannot +always be taken seriously, but it is surely permissible to feel a +regret for kindly, improvident Dick Talbot-Lowry, his youth and his +income departing together, and the civic powers that he had once +exercised, reft from him. Such power as he had had, he had exercised +honourably and with reverent confidence in precedent, and when he had +damned Parnell, and had asserted, in stentorian tones, that Cromwell +was the only man who had ever known how to govern Ireland, and he, +unfortunately, was now in hell; where, the Major would add, he was +probably better off, his contribution to constructive politics had +ended. He and his generation, reactionary almost to a man, instead of +attempting to ride the waves of the rising tide, subscribed their +guineas to construct breakwaters that were pathetic in their futility. +Gallant in resistance, barren in expedient, history may condemn the +folly of the. Old Guard of the "English Garrison," but it cannot deny, +even though it may deride, its fidelity. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +Lady Isabel Talbot-Lowry had invited what is concisely spoken of as +"people" to tea and tennis. The month was June, but the weather was +March, or at best, a sullen and overcast April. The purport of the +entertainment had been the exhibition, to rival amateurs, of the Mount +Music herbaceous borders, which, though "not looking quite their +best," were as nearly approximating to that never-achieved ideal, as +is ever the case with either gardens or children; but showers of chill +rain had marred the display, and the lawn tennis was fitful, and +subject to frequent interruption. In these circumstances, a fire of +turf and logs did not need apologies for its presence, and Lady Isabel +and her companion Heads of Households sat with it as their focal +point, and thought, as they saw the players flitting to and fro +between the showers, and the house, and the lawn tennis grounds, that +middle age had privileges that were not to be despised. + +The long and lofty drawing-room of Mount Music was a pleasant place +enough, even on this showery day. Some five or six generations of +Talbot-Lowrys had lived in it, and left their marks on it, and though +the indelible hand of Victoria, in youthful vigour, had had, perhaps, +the most perceptible influence on it as a whole, the fancies and +fashions of Major Dick's great-grandmother still held their places. An +ottoman, large as a merry-go-round at a fair, immovable as an island, +occupied, immutably, the space in the centre of the room immediately +under a great cut-glass chandelier. Facing it was the fireplace, an +affair of complicated design, with "Nelson ropes" and knots, and +coils, in worked and twisted brass, and deep hobs, in whose +construction the needs of a punch-kettle had not been forgotten. Above +it, a high, delicately-inlaid marble mantelpiece, brought from Italy +by Dick's great-grandfather, was surmounted by a narrow ledge of +marble, just wide enough to support the base of a Georgian mirror of +flamboyant design, in whose dulled and bluish depths were reflected +the row of old white china birds, that were seated, each on its own +rock, on the shelf in front of it. Family portraits in frames whose +charm of design and colour made atonement for the indifference of the +painting, alternated with brown landscapes in which castles, bridges, +and impenetrable groves were dimly to be discovered through veils of +varnish; flotillas of miniatures had settled, like groups of flies, +wherever on the crowded walls foothold could be found, and +water-colours, pencil-drawings, and photographs, rilled any remaining +space. There were long and implacable sofas, each with its +conventional sofa-table in front of it; Empire _consoles_, with +pieces of china incredibly diverse in style, beauty, and value, +jostling each other on the marble slabs; woolwork screens, worked by +forgotten aunts and grandmothers, chairs of every known breed, and +tables, tables everywhere, and not a corner on one of them on which +anything more could be deposited. The claims of literature were +acknowledged, but without enthusiasm. A tall, glass-fronted cupboard, +inaccessibly placed behind the elongated tail of an early grand piano, +was filled with ornate miniature editions of the classics, that would +have defied an effort--had such ever been made--to remove them from +their shelves, whereon they had apparently been bedded in cement, like +mosaic. It was a room that, in its bewildering diversity, might have +broken the hearts of housemaids or decorators; untidy, without plan, +with rubbish contending successfully with museum-pieces, with the past +and present struggling in their eternal rivalry; yet, a human place, a +place full of the magnetism that is born of past happiness, a place to +which all its successive generations of sons and daughters looked back +with that softening of the heart that comes, when in, perhaps, a +far-away country, memories of youth return, and with them the thought +of home. The ladies who, constant to the saner pleasures of +conversation and tea, had disposed themselves round and about Lady +Isabel's tea-table, were of the inner circle of the friends of the +house, and owned, as is usually the case where habits and environment +are practically identical, a common point of view, and no more +diversity of opinion than is enough to stimulate conversation. Such of +them as had compelled husbands or sons to accompany them, had shaken +them off at the lawn tennis ground, and though loud cawings from the +hall indicated that certain of the more elderly males had congregated +there, the ladies in the drawing-room had, so far, been "unmolested by +either the young people or the men." + +Thus, Miss Frederica Coppinger phrased it to those of her allies with +whom she was now holding sweet communion. The allies, albeit separated +by intervals of from five to ten miles of rough and often hilly road, +met with sufficient frequency to keep touch, yet not often enough to +crush the ultimate fragrance from the flower of gossip. Their most +recent meeting had taken place at the concert, which had been Larry's +last achievement before his return to Oxford, and although they had +not been oppressively hampered by the convention of silence at such +entertainments, conversation had been necessarily somewhat thwarted. + +"They made quite a useful little sum at Larry's concert," said +Frederica. "Local charities--which meant the Fowl Fund, of course--and +Mr. Cotton and Father Greer. Dick said he would not support it if his +old women were not helped--abominable cheats though most of them are!" + +"I _feel_ for them!" said Mrs. Kirby, intensely. "_No_ one +knows the misery and the beggary inflicted on me by the foxes that +Bill encourages about the place!" + +A sympathetic imagination enabled her friends to realise the misery +and beggary which Mrs. Kirby's exceedingly cheerful and prosperous +appearance concealed. Both groaned appropriately, and Miss Coppinger +made the sweeping statement that she detested hunting in _all_ +its ramifications. "We are always told that its great merit is that it +brings all classes together," she continued. "In _my_ opinion +that is a very dubious advantage, if, indeed, it is not a draw-back!" + +Mrs. Kirby permitted her glance to commune for a brief instant with +that of the third lady, Mrs. St. George. + +"Like mixed concerts!" said Mrs. St. George, in a deep and awful +voice. + +"Mixed pickles!" murmured Mrs. Kirby, and chuckled at her jest. + +Miss Frederica flushed. + +"My dear Louisa," she said, resentfully, "I am perfectly aware of +their disadvantages, but I should be obliged to you if you would tell +me what I am to do! It is the difference in religion that makes me +powerless. Powerless!" she repeated looking almost with triumph upon +her companions, so irrefutable was her case. + +"I hope I'm not a bigot," said Mrs. St. George impressively; "but I +thank God I'm not a Roman Catholic!" + +"'Not as other men are'!" quoted Miss Coppinger, with some acidity. +Even though she agreed with the sentiment, she could not forget that +Larry was her nephew. + +"Oh, it isn't the actual _religion_ I was thinking of," said Mrs. +St. George, rather hurriedly, Larry's disadvantages having temporarily +escaped her memory. "It was rather--well--" + + +"For boys it doesn't matter so much," broke in Mrs. Kirby, "but I +really _did_ dislike seeing Christian on the platform with that +party!" + +"She was only playing accompaniments," said Miss Coppinger still +resentful. + +"That only made it worse! If she had sung a solo it would have been +less humiliating," replied Mrs. Kirby, with a masterly change of +front. "I was indignant! Christian, with her charming voice, only +playing accompaniments and singing in the glees, and that unendurable +Mangan girl posing as the Prima Donna, and oh! her clothes!" + +"Or her want of them!" interposed Mrs. St. George, on a profound bass +note. + +"And her songs! I don't profess to know much about music, but I +_do_ know what I like!" continued Mrs. Kirby with the finality +and decision that usually accompany the admission. "People may tell me +she has a fine voice, but I _detest_ enormous contralto voices! +_What_ I suffered during the last thing she sang as an encore! +And that final yell of 'Asthore'! at least an octave below her voice! +I could only think of the bellow of the cow that jumped over the +moon!" + +"What made _me_ indignant," said Mrs. St. George, in emulous +depreciation, ignoring this flight of fancy, "was their not having +'God save the King'! A cowardly concession to the Gaelic League, of +course! I really think that Georgy, who is in the Navy, might have +insisted upon it!" + +"They did discuss it," said Frederica, forced by her friend into the +position of devil's advocate, "but they were afraid of the sixpenny +seats. The Mangans said that there would inevitably be rows. They have +had to give up having it at anything now." + +This was unanswerable, and Mrs. St. George tacitly accepted defeat. + +"I believe that young Mangan is simply a _Rebel_" resumed Mrs. +Kirby, portentously. "Bill thinks he'll go too far some day, and the +police will _have_ to take notice of him. But with the Government +yielding and pandering--" + +Here, at least, was a subject on which all three disputants were in +complete agreement. Wolfe Tone or Robert Emmet could hardly have +abhorred the Government of England more heartily than did these three +respectable, law-abiding, unalterably-Unionist ladies, and for some +time the more recent enormities of the rule upon which they +theoretically bestowed their unshakable, allegiance, took precedence +of Miss Mangan as a subjct of disapproval. + +"Nevertheless," summed up Mrs. St. George gloomily at the end of a +sweeping condemnation, "we must submit. We can do nothing. As Courtney +says, _we_ can't cut off cows' tails and shoot our tenants for +not paying their rent! _He_ says--" + +Colonel St. George's further views were lost in the entrance of the +lawn tennis players, rain-sprinkled, heated, bringing with them a +lively aroma of trodden grass and wet flannel, and convinced of their +superiority to those who had sought shelter, and were now (to quote +Miss Talbot-Lowry) soddenly eating all the hot cakes. Judith had +recently returned from one of her forays, and had not spared her +family her views on the _rapprochement_ with the musical world of +Cluhir that the concert had involved. She was now seated with Bill +Kirby on a secluded sofa in a corner of the long drawing-room, and was +entertaining that deeply-enamoured young man with her accustomed +fluency. + +Mr. Kirby, having petted and patronised Judith in her youth, when he +was still nine years older than she, had, since her recent return, +awakened to the fact that this difference in age had been mysteriously +obliterated, and that at present, Judith was not only his superior in +intelligence, but also in all those subsidiary matters in which age is +generally and erroneously believed to confer an advantage. + +"If it had even been a good concert," Judith remarked, gobbling tea +and cake with a heartiness that, taken in connection with an admirable +complexion and very clear blue eyes, was in itself attractive to a +hungry young man, "I could have borne it better. But it was absolutely +deadly--all but just our own people's turns, of course--a sort of +lyrical geography--the map of Ireland set to music! Bantry Bay, +Killarney, the Mountains of Somewhere, the Waters of Somewhere else, +all Irish, of course! I get so sick of Ireland and her endearing young +charms--and all the entreaties to Erin to remember! As if she ever +forgot!" + +"She remembers her enemies, all right," rejoined Bill Kirby, gloomily, +"but she forgets her friends! I know someone who hasn't got any +enemies to remember, but she's just like Ireland in one way!" + +"What way?" demanded Judith, "and who do you mean?" + +"You know very well who I mean! And the reason she is like Ireland is +that she forgets her friends! People who use to give her leads out +hunting when she was a little girl and never forgot _her_!" + +"In the first place, I deny it, and in the second place, serves them +right if she does forget them," replied Judith tranquilly; "I don't +know the injured beings you refer to but I _do_ know my own +family. I take my eye off them for five minutes, and I come home to +find they have not only forgotten my existence, but they have plunged +into the heart of that appalling Cluhir crowd, and are indignant with +me--at least the boys and papa are--because I don't do the same! +Strange as it may appear, _I_ like nice people!" + +"I wasn't talking of your family," said Bill Kirby morosely, "Hang it +all. _I'm_ quite a nice person, and haven't plunged into the +heart of Cluhir, but it's only by sort of accident, like this, that +you will ever say a word to me!" + +"You'd better insure against accidents of this kind!" said Judith, who +was frankly enjoying herself; "and if you choose to renounce the +charms of Cluhir, you needn't make a virtue of it! Perhaps they don't +want you! They mayn't realise what a nice person you are! Would you +like me to explain to Tishy Mangan--" + +Bill Kirby, who was possessed of good brown eyes and a profile like a +handsome battle-axe, was a young man of no special intellectual gifts, +but the sound judgment that distinguished him in the hunting-field was +wont to stand his friend in other emergencies. He was entirely aware +that he was no match for Judith in debate, but he was also aware that +deeds sometimes speak louder than words. He attempted no spoken reply, +but after a wary glance round the room, he permitted his large, brown +hand to descend upon and envelop Judith's, that rested on the sofa +beside him. + +"You know you're talking rot," he murmured, cautiously. "No, don't +struggle. If you say things like that, you've got to be punished. Are +you sorry?" + +"Not in the least!" replied Judith, with an equal caution; "but you +will be, soon! Mrs. St. George is looking at you!" The battle-axe +profile of Mr. Kirby betrayed no hint of the situation. + +"Keep quiet, and say you're sorry! _I_ don't mind sitting here +all the afternoon--like this," he added, with a slight additional +pressure. + +"I shall count three," said Judith suavely, "and then I shall ask you +in a loud, clear voice to get me another cup of tea. One--" + +Further developments of the situation need not be attempted, the more +so as at this juncture the entrance of two uninvited guests caused a +redistribution of seats, whose most marked feature was the creation of +a desert space round the new arrivals and their hostess. + +It would perhaps be irregular to say that the Reverend Matthew and +Mrs. Cotton were the incumbents of the parish church of Cluhir (and +had been profanely described as "the incumbrance of Cluhir"); even to +speak of them as, respectively, its curate and its rector, might, +though more accurate, be, perhaps, considered flippant. It would also +be open to the reproach of lack of originality. Yet, unoriginal though +the dominant clergywoman of fiction may be, it cannot be denied that +St. Paul's injunctions in connection with the subjection of wives did +not commend themselves to Mrs. Cotton. It may be, indeed, that her +views on matrimony, being more instructed, were sounder than those of +St. Paul, and she could at least argue that had he been acquainted +with Mr. Cotton he might have modified them. In any case, whatever St. +Paul might think about it, Mrs. Cotton was quite sure that she was +better fitted than was her husband to deal with the matter that had +brought them to Mount Music. + +She did not, however, as becomes a sound tactician, approach the point +with undue directness. Lady Isabel had sent her daughters to school in +Paris; Lady Isabel had, on a bygone occasion, been goaded by Mrs. +Cotton into a declaration that her servants' religion was a matter +with which she only concerned herself if they neglected their +religious duties. Mrs. Cotton, remembering these things and being ever +filled to brimming with what Christian has called The Spirit of the +Nation, opened with a general attack upon the Church of Rome, and +narrowed to a tale of "a friend of mine and Mr. Cotton's. A clergyman. +A man of private means." After this stimulating prelude, the tale +ceased for a moment, while Mrs. Cotton blinked her small black eyes at +her hostess, several times, as was her practice. "Oh, a very wealthy +man!" she continued, imposingly, "and he bought a lovely house, with a +garden; a lovely garden!" The thought of a garden was a fortunate one, +and enlisted Lady Isabel's wandering attention. "But at the end of the +garden what was there but a Nunnery. And the clergyman found that his +daughters were always slipping out into the garden, and what was it +but the nuns that were getting hold of the girls! Very refined women +they were, and well able to deceive young girls!" The tale was flowing +swiftly now, but Mrs. Cotton paused dramatically, and continued on a +lower key. "The clergyman had had bookshelves made to fit the study, +and a splendid antique sideboard to fitanitch--" Mrs. Cotton spoke +fast, and the last three words ran bewilderingly into one. "But he +sold the house AT ONCE! Yes, indeed, Lady Isabel! Weren't his +daughters' souls more to him than bookshelves?" + +Lady Isabel, who was still wrestling with the apparently Russian +problem in connection with the antique sideboard, attempted no reply +to this inquiry, and Mrs. Cotton, considering that her hostess' mind +was now sufficiently prepared, did not wait for her opinion, and swept +on to her objective, which was the denunciation of the conduct of the +recent concert, and more especially of the disposition of the +proceeds. "Of course, _I_ don't know in whose hands it lay, Lady +Isabel," she said, raising her tea cup to her lips, and in order to do +so curtaining it behind her ample veil, "but the Roman Catholics +seemed to consider that it was _all_ to go to them, and the +paltry sum I have mentioned was all they gave Mr. Cotton and me for +_our_ charities!" Her black eyes snapped nenacingly at Lady +Isabel over the rim of the veiled tea cup. + +Lady Isabel uttered a soothing and indefinite murmur, and the +indictment proceeded. + +"Considering that _your_ family, Lady Isabel, took a leading part +in the programme, and that I may say the greater number of the +half-crown seats were Protestants, I _do_ think that _our_ +Church--" + +It avails not to follow Mrs. Cotton's diatribes further. Lady Isabel +had lived for some five and twenty years in Ireland, but they had not +sufficed to expound to her the intricacies of the web of jealousies, +hatreds, fears, and stupidities, that has been spun by that intolerant +Spirit of the Nation, in order to separate, as far as may be, the two +Churches who divide the kindly people of the Island of Saints between +them. Lady Isabel might see that in the distribution of the spoils +Mrs. Cotton had possibly a lawful grievance, but she could not, even +after five and twenty years, quite understand how solacing to the soul +of Mrs. Cotton was the consideration of the wrongs endured by her +Church. + +"Yes, indeed, Lady Isabel! Not one penny more! And then Dr. Mangan to +say to Mr. Cotton when I sent him to complain about it, that it was +better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick! That was by the way +of making a joke of it! And that the Hunt wanted it more than we did! +I wonder how much Father Greer left the Hunt!" + +Again Mrs. Cotton's beady eyes snapped several times, in an emotion +that was not far from enjoyment. The iniquities of Father Greer were +very dear to her, and she was confident that in this matter of +dividing the spoil he had not disappointed her. + +Passing on from the concert, Mrs. Cotton dealt with many subjects in a +harangue that turned the seamy side of Cluhir to the sun, with the +skill of a buyer of old clothes. Lady Isabel, behind the prisoning +tea-table, after a hopeless, helpless glance round an assembly that +was either preoccupied or wilfully blind, relapsed into the brain +stupor that was sometimes sent, like an anodyne, to those whom fate +had consigned to Mrs. Cotton's keeping. The Reverend Matthew, in whom +a prolonged course of his wife had developed a condition, when in her +society, of semi-hypnotic trance, sat in silence at his hostess' side, +devouring cake, and swallowing cups of tea, until what had apparently +been starvation was averted; he then dreamily withdrew, and joined +himself vaguely, to the group of which Miss Coppinger formed one. +Frederica's early training had, as has been said, implanted in her an +ineradicable interest in the Church. Even the dulled, almost +obliterated personality of Mr. Cotton still held for her some of the +magic of his cloth. She moved her chair to admit him to the fellowship +of which she was one, and offered him the seat that had been hastily +vacated by Mrs. Kirby on his approach, with a darkling eye of reproof +at that experienced lady. + +Conversation with Mr. Cotton resembled conversation with his wife, in +that it was apt to be one-sided, life having taught him to take the +side not patronised by Mrs. Cotton. When, however, severed from her, +he was capable of imparting rudimentary fragments of fact, and one of +these he now offered to Miss Coppinger. + +"I hear your nephew is the candidate chosen by the Nationalists here +for the next election, Miss Coppinger," he said, his pale eyes +regarding her drearily over the top of his spectacles. + +Frederica sat erect in her chair with a jerk, and a hot red sprang, +like a danger-signal, to her face. + +"I've heard nothing of it," she said stoutly, but with a leaping heart +of horror. "How do you know it is the case?" + +"It is commonly reported in the town," replied Mr. Cotton, "One hears +these things--" + +"I can't believe it--I can't believe it," said Frederica; the colour +had left her cheeks, and her eyes hurried from Mr. Cotton's face to +Mrs. St. George's, and roved on to Mrs. Kirby, who was seated near, +and had evidently felt the wind of the shot. + +"Why, the boy is only just twenty-one!" said Mrs. Kirby, rolling +herself and her chair back into action to the support of her friend. +"With all deference to you, Mr. Cotton, I don't believe a word of it! +Of course, Larry would have told you, Frederica! I can well believe +that those Gaelic League people would like to have him if they can get +him! Depend upon it, the wish is father to the thought!" + +Frederica made no reply; her lips were tightly compressed, and her +unseeing eyes, though they appeared to be fixed on Mrs. Kirby's broad +and friendly face, were looking along the paths of memory to the time +when that barrier of ice had not arisen between her and Larry. + +"I understand that the suggestion emanated from Dr. Mangan," went on +Mr. Cotton, faintly stimulated by his unaccustomed success. "I am not +aware if young Mr. Coppinger has made any reply." + +Mrs. Kirby put her plump white hand on Frederica's narrow knee. "I +shouldn't distress myself if I were you, my dear," she said in a low +voice. "Quite possibly it's all a mistake--" She turned to Mr. +Cotton, who was relapsing into trance; his eyes had followed the +movement of her hand, and were being held, hypnotically, by the +sparkle of the diamonds in her rings. "At all events," went on Mrs. +Kirby, "a general election now is very unlikely, and our valued +member--upon my word, I don't even remember his name!--isn't likely to +resign in Larry's favour, so we needn't discuss it now! I am sure, Mr. +Cotton, that you will agree with me, that the less said about it the +better; most probably the whole thing will die out and come to +nothing!" She glanced at Mrs. St. George, and perceiving that the news +had shattered her in only less degree than Frederica, she continued to +address Mr. Cotton, "Such weather! Isn't it? How does your garden like +all this rain, Mr. Cotton? Our strawberries _won't_ ripen, and as +for the poor hay--! You really ought to have prayers for fine +weather for us next Sunday!" + +Mr. Cotton recalled his eyes from the diamonds with an effort. "I +will, if you like, Mrs. Kirby!" he said, looking at her, like an old +horse, down his long, deplorable nose, "but I fear they will be not of +much use, as the glawss is remorkably low!" + +Prayers for the modification of the weather are often treated as a +permissible subject for mirth, and Mrs. Kirby availed herself of the +convention; even Frederica and Mrs. St. George, stricken though they +were, smiled wanly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +At about this time, that imposing spectacle, once described by Mrs. +Twomey as "The Big Doctor and little Danny Aherne walking the streets +of Cluhir like two paycocks," was vouchsafed to the town rather more +frequently than was usually the case. Dr. Aherne had sent a patient, +who was no less a person than the priest of the parish of Pribawn, to +the private ward of the Infirmary in Cluhir, where he would, among +other advantages, receive daily visits from Dr. Mangan. Father Sweeny +was suffering from a broken leg, and other damages; a midnight drive +to a dying parishioner had ended, disastrously, in an unguarded +road-side ditch, and Dr. Aherne had thought it best to consign a +patient of such importance to the care of hands less occupied, as well +as of higher renown, than his own. + +Thus it was that the Big Doctor and his kinsman saw more of each other +than is often possible for men whose work is as widespread and +incessant as is that of Irish Dispensary Doctors. On this windy June +morning they had met in the dreary yard of the Workhouse, to which the +Infirmary was attached, and together they paced the long, whitewashed, +slate-paven passages that led to the Infirmary, pausing at intervals +to talk of matters quite unconnected with their patients, but, if the +frequency of the pauses, filled by the sibilant whispers of the little +doctor, and the deep growls of the big one, was any criterion, none +the less absorbing. + +"His name's been accepted," ended the Big Doctor, after the lengthiest +of these, "and it would be no harm for you to be slipping in a word, +now and again, with the people through the country, according as you'd +get the chance, Danny." + +"I will, I will," replied the little doctor, as he opened the door of +Father Sweeny's room. + +"You're doing very well, Father," said Dr. Mangan, his inspection of +the patient ended. "I consider you couldn't be progressing more +satisfactorily." He seated himself by Father Tim Sweeny's bedside, +while the Nursing Sister-in-Charge rolled up bandages, and conferred +in lowered tones with Dr. Aherne, on the subject of what he called the +patient's "dite." + +"You'll be going as strong as ever you did in a few weeks' time," +continued Dr. Mangan, encouragingly. + +Father Sweeny returned the Doctor's look morosely. + +"I'm sick and tired of being here as it is," he said, gloomily, "and +you talk to me of weeks!" + +"Ah, they'll pass, never fear they'll pass!" said the Big Doctor, +cheerfully. "I never saw the weeks yet that didn't pass if you waited +long enough! And I wouldn't say but that you mightn't go home before +you're out of our hands entirely." + +Father Sweeny received these consolations with an unpropitiated grunt. +His large face, with its broad cheeks and heavy double-chins, that was +usually of a sanguine and all pervasive beefy-red, now hung in pallid +purple folds, on which dark bristles, that were as stiff as those on +the barrel of a musical box, told that the luxury of shaving had +hitherto been withheld. There are some professions that tend more than +others to grade the men that follow them into distinct types. The Sea +is one of these, the Church, and pre-eminently the Church of Rome, is +another. The ecclesiastical types vary no less than the nautical ones, +and neither need here be enumerated. It is sufficient to say that +Father Sweeny, when in his usual robust health, in voice, in +appearance, and in manner, provoked, uncontrollably, a comparison with +a heavy and truculent black bull. + +"'Tis highly inconvenient to me to be boxed up in bed this way, at +this time," said Father Sweeny, with a small hot eye upon his +attendant nun that would have said instantly to any one less entirely +kind, religious, and painstaking, that he had no immediate need of her +services; "Sister Maria Joseph, I wonder would you be so kind as to +bring me the paper? I didn't see it to-day at all." + +Sister Maria Joseph turned her amiable, unruffled face, with that pure +complexion that would seem to be one of the compensations for the +renunciation of the world, towards her patient, and said, +obsequiously: + +"I beg your pordon, Fawther?" + +The little eyes had a hotter sparkle as Father Sweeny repeated his +request. + +"It's a wonder to me," he growled to Dr. Mangan, after Sister Maria +Joseph had left the room, having taken, in her anxiety to show +respect, quite half a minute in closing the door with suitable +noiselessness, "why people can't attend to what's said to them! If +there's a thing I hate, it's being bothered repeating an entirely +trivial matter, which--"--here Father Tim's voice began to take on +the angry, high tenor of one of his prototypes--"she had a right to +have heard at the first offer! I declare I'm beside meself sometimes +with the annoyance I get!" + +Dr. Mangan laid his spatulate fingers upon the sufferer's hairy wrist. + +"We'll have to give his Reverence a sedative, Danny," he said, winking +at his colleague. "I'd be sorry to see you that way, Father; the bed's +narrow enough for you as it is, without having you beside yourself in +it!" + +Father Sweeny's mood was one to which chaff did not commend itself. He +snatched his hand from beneath the Doctor's fingers, and picked up +some letters that lay beside him. + +"Look at this, I ask you! From Mary Murphy, saying her husband is +quite well, and that he took the turn for good from the minute he was +anointed! And me lying here crippled!" + +"'The dog it was that died!'" quoted Dr. Mangan, smoothly. + +"What dog?" demanded Father Sweeny, with indignation, "I d'no what +you're talking about!" + +"Ah, nothing, nothing," said the Big Doctor, with a lift of the spirit +at the thought of his superior culture, "but surely it wasn't to show +me Mary Murphy's letter that you sent poor Sister Maria Joseph on a +fool's errand?" + +"Why a fool's errand?" demanded the now incensed Father Sweeny. "What +d'ye mean?" + +"Look at the newspaper on the floor here," returned the Doctor. +"You'll have her back in a minute, begging your pardon again, to tell +you so." + +Father Sweeny glared, speechless, at his tormentor for an instant; +then, rinding the Big Doctor unmoved "in the furnace of his look," he +fell back on his pillows. + +"Lock the door!" he commanded angrily. He pushed a letter into the +Doctor's hand. "Read that!" + +"Hullo! The Major! What's _he_ got to say to you, Father Tim?" + +"Read it, I tell you!" + +Dr. Mangan did so, with attention, and read it a second time before he +replaced it in its envelope and handed it back to the priest. + +"That's a nice letter!" said Father Sweeny, with a snort that he +believed to be a laugh. "What d'ye think of that now, you that are so +fond of Protestants!" + +"I think the man is justified," said the Doctor, stoutly. "There's no +such great hurry, and anyhow, his authority is at an end. He couldn't +give you as much as'd sod a lark now--" + +"Nor he wouldn't if he could!" broke in Father Sweeny. "And there +_is_ hurry, and great hurry! How will I build my chapel without +the land to put it on? Will you tell me that?" + +"Ah, you haven't the money gathered yet. The delay isn't worth +exciting yourself about!" said the Doctor, soothingly. Father Tim +amused him, and he liked him, being well aware that if his temper was +hot, his heart was correspondingly warm. "You'll see the young chap +will give you the site as soon as look at you." + +"And how do I know the young chap will be any easier than the old one? +Isn't he there at Mount Music all day and every day, at their +tea-parties and their dinner-parties? Won't they have him married up +to one of the daughters before you can look around? He may call +himself a Catholic, but them English Catholics--COME IN!" + +Sister Maria Joseph's faint tap at the door had as instant an effect +as a squib, planted in the mane of the monarch of the bull-ring, might +produce. + +"I cannt--the door's locked, Fawther!" came Sister Maria Joseph's +gentle voice, in mild protest. "I couldn't find the--" + +"Never mind it! I have it myself--_I have it_, I tell you!" +shouted Father Tim; in his voice the appeal to a merciful Heaven to +grant patience was unmistakable. + +Sister Maria Joseph, recognising with trembling her superfluousness, +withdrew. + +"It's Barty will have that job we were speaking of just now, before +you were coaxing Sister Maria Joseph to go away from you," resumed Dr. +Mangan. "Maybe you didn't hear he's got the Coppinger's Court Agency? +Young Coppinger offered it to him yesterday." + +"It's a good thing it's out of Talbot-Lowry's hands anyhow," growled +Father Sweeny. + +"Larry's up at my house every day now, about a concert they're to +have," went on the Doctor, tranquilly. "Tishy's helping him. He's very +fond of music. I think you're mistaken in thinking he'll be married to +one of the Major's daughters in such a hurry!" + +"The first thing he'll want to do is to tidy up his property and +pacify the tenants," said Dr. Aherne, in his small, piping voice. +"They're not too pleased with the way they are now. The Major was +rather short with some of them, now and again. There was Herlihy, and +two of the Briens, was talking to me and saying what would they do at +all with Father Tim here, away. They were thinking would Father +Hogan--" + +"Br-r-r-r-r-h!" + +As a bull shakes his head, with a reverberating roar at the foes he +cannot reach, so did Father Tim Sweeny, crippled and furious, roll his +big head, growling, on his pillows. His dark hair lay in tight rings +on his broad and bulging forehead, and curled in strength over his +head back to the tonsure. His eyes were congested with the unavailing +rage that possessed him, as he thought of his parish left leaderless. + +Had the "Ballad of the Bull" then been written, and had Dr. Mangan +been acquainted with it (which seems unlikely) he might have again +proved his culture by remembering the injunction to pity "this fallen +chief," as he saw the impotent wrath in Father Tim's bovine +countenance. + +"Don't worry yourself now, Father," he said, consolingly, "I'll +undertake to say it will be all right about the site for the chapel, +and what's more, I'll undertake to say there'll be nothing done about +it, or the tenants, or anything else, till you're well. The people +will do nothing without you!" + +He looked at his huge, old-fashioned gold watch. + +"Oh, b' Jove, I must be off! Tell me, did you hear they have Larry +Coppinger chosen to be the candidate, when Prendergast retires, as he +says he will, before the next election? There won't be much talk of +tea-parties for Larry at Mount Music then! Any tea-party there that +he'd go to once he was a Nationalist M.P., I think he'd be apt to get +'his tay in a mug!'" + +The Doctor got up and moved towards the door. + +"I'll support him, so!" Father Sweeny called after him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +There are families, as there are nations, that are like those ships +that, launched under a lucky star, sail their appointed courses ever +serenely and eventlessly, and though they may indeed look on tempests, +yet are never shaken by them. But of such was not, it must regretfully +be said, the family of Talbot-Lowry. It can only be supposed that the +gods had preordained its destruction, for on no other assumption can +the dementia of its chief representative be comprehended. It would be +out of place, even, if not impertinent, absurd, to discuss here the +Act of Parliament that in the year nineteen hundred and three, made +provision to change the ownership of Irish land, and to transfer its +possession from the landlords to the tenants. It is sufficient to say +that those of both classes who were endowed with the valuable quality +of knowing on which side of a piece of bread the butter had been +applied, lost as little time as was possible in availing themselves of +the facilities that the Act offered them. The ceremony of Hari Kiri, +even if entered upon with the belief that it will lead to another and +a better world, is not an agreeable one, but it was obvious to most +Irish landlords that, with bad or good grace, sooner or later, that +grim rite had to be faced, and that the hindmost in the transaction +need expect only the fate proverbially promised to such. It is, +possibly, superfluous to say that of the company of the hindmost was +our poor friend, well-meaning and stupid Dick Talbot-Lowry, and also +that his fate, as such, was sedulously pointed out to him by those +friends of his own class, who, like the fabled fox, having lost their +brushes, were eager in explanation of the superiority of their +position. + +"I don't own a stick outside my own demesne wall!" says Colonel St. +George. "Of all the hundreds of acres of mountain that my father had, +there isn't as much as one patch of bog left that I could cut a sod of +turf in!" + +This whisk of a vanished brush was a gesture well calculated to enrage +Major Dick. It was senseless of St. George to boast of his +limitations, and yet no one better than Dick knew what must be the +feeling of emancipation that prompted the boast. + +Autocracy dies hard, and it is probable that long after Leagues of +Nations have decreed the abolition of all Rulers, the Autocrat of the +Breakfast Table will still, in the most inveterate Republics, issue, +unquestioned, his unalterable edicts, with his coat-tails monopolising +the dining-room fire, and the family income concentrated in his cheque +book. Dick Talbot-Lowry's pigheadedness was at the root of the +downsliding of Mount Music. Having faced, undaunted, deputations of +his tenants; deputations of public bodies; ("Damned interfering +blackguards, who ought to be taught to mind their own business!"), +having made light of advice from his friends, and of anonymous +threatening letters from, presumably, his enemies, he still held fast, +and refused to sell the property that had come to him from the men +whose portraits had looked down on him from the old walls of Mount +Music, all the days of his life. It was, perhaps, the solitary strand +of romance in his nature, the feudal feeling that the Mount Music +tenants were his, as they had been his ancestors', to have and to +hold, to rule, to arbitrate for, and to stand by, as a fond and +despotic husband rules and stands by an obedient wife, loving her and +bullying her (but both entirely for her good). He had, moreover, the +desire to disparage and to disprove new ideas, that is a sign of a +mind incapable of originality, and anxious to assert itself +negatively, since it must otherwise remain silent. + +"But Dick," his friends would say, "there isn't a property this side +of the county that isn't sold, except your own!" + +"What's that to me?" says Dick, as stubborn and stupid a King Canute +as ever sat with the tide nearing the tops of his hunting-boots; "I +don't care a damn what anybody else does! And what's more," he would +add, gloomily, "_I_ can't afford to sell at seventeen years' +purchase. Anyhow, what's mine's my own! I'll be shot if I'll be +bullied!" + +"I wouldn't be at all surprised if you were!" the friends would reply +darkly. + +To sell at seventeen years' purchase, was what Mr. St. Lawrence +Coppinger had done, following the advice of his agent and solicitor, +Mr. Bartholomew Mangan, and his cousin, and late guardian, Major +Talbot-Lowry, had found it hard to forgive him. The business had been +arranged while Larry was in Paris, and the expostulations that might +have prevailed if delivered _viva voce_, failed of their effect +when presented on foreign paper, in Cousin Dick's illegible scrawl. It +was all very fine for Larry, ran the illegible scrawl, to talk of +selling at such a price, but he ought to see what a hole his doing so +put his neighbours in! Larry hadn't a squad of incumbrances, and +charges, and mortgages, hung round his neck like leeches (and no fault +of the Major's). He had had to find money in a hurry to pay off one of +these cursed things only the other day, and if he hadn't had the luck +to mention it to a friend, who was kind enough to come to the rescue +(of course on good security) the Major would have been in a hat, or a +hole, Larry couldn't quite read which. + +These grievances, and much more, illegibly scrawled on foreign paper, +with a quill pen. Larry, swallowed up in the absorbing, isolating life +of a Paris studio, would put the letters half-read, in his pocket, and +would immediately forget all about them. After all, he couldn't +interfere with Barty; he was the man at the helm, and mustn't be +talked to. Also it was idiotic to keep a dog and bark yourself. +Proverbial philosophy is a recognised sedative; Larry gave himself a +dose or two, and straightway forgot Cousin Dick, forgot Ireland, +forgot even that gratifying nomination of himself as Nationalist +candidate for the Division, and plunged back into the burning +atmosphere of art, wherein models and professors, cliques and cabals, +glow, and seethe, and exist intensely, and with as little reference to +the affairs of the outside world, as if they were the sole occupants +of a distant and much over-heated star. + +There are many people who have been endowed with one master-passion, +that "like Aaron's serpent swallows up the rest," but Larry's +ingenuous breast harboured a nest of such serpents. During his three +years at Oxford, he had stormed from one enthusiasm to another; he had +rowed, and boxed, and spouted politics, and, beginning with music, had +stormed on through poetry and the drama, to painting. + +Having taken a moderate degree, he had rushed in pursuit of this +latest charmer to Paris, and the waters of the Quartier Latin then +closed over him. Occasionally a bubble would rise from those clouded +deeps, and a letter to Aunt Freddy, or to Barty Mangan, would briefly +announce his continued existence. Sometimes he wrote to Christian, and +would expand a little more to her; telling her of how one Professor +had remarked of his work that it was now _presque pas mal_, and +that this dizzying encomium had encouraged him to begin a _Salon_ +(its subject described at length, with elucidatory sketches); further, +that he had taken a very jolly _atelier_, and "dear old Chose" +was "on the Jury," and would try and get him accepted, with much more +to the same effect, music, politics, horses and hounds, forgotten as +though they had never been. + +Christian received these effusions with a characteristic mixture of +respect for the artistic effort that they described, and of amused, +almost pitying comprehension of the enthusiasm that they revealed. It +was three years since Larry had left Oxford and gone to France, and +during those years Christian had learned more of life than Larry had +acquired, or would ever acquire, in spite of the three years' start of +her with which he had begun the world. + +Judith had been induced to close her brilliant career as a buccaneer, +by a perfectly, even--from the buccaneering point of view--depressingly +satisfactory marriage with Mr. William Kirby, and her departure had +forced her younger sister into the front rank of domestic combatants. +At Mount Music, where once the milk and honey had flowed with +effortless abundance, each year brought increasing stress. The rents +grew less, the expenses greater, that large and omnivorous item, known +as "keeping up the place," was as exacting as ever, the minor problems +of household existence more acute. There had been a time when the +Mount Music tenants had vied with one another in the provision of sons +and daughters for service in the Big House, when bonfires had blazed +for the return of "the young gentlemen," and offerings of eggs had +greeted "the young ladies." Now the propitiatory turkey that heralded +a request, the goose that signalised a success, gained with the help +of the hereditary helpers, had all ceased. Alien influences had +poisoned the wells of friendship. Such rents as were paid were +extracted by the hard hand of the law, and the tenants held +indignation meetings against the landlord who refused to resign to +them what they believed to be theirs, and he was equally convinced was +his. Major Dick still shot and fished, as was his right, over the +lands and waters that were still in his name, but the tenants, whose +fathers had loved him, had renounced the old allegiance. The +partridges were run down by the greyhounds that had killed off the +hares; the salmon were poached; worst of all, Derrylugga Gorse, the +covert that Dick had planted twenty-five years ago, on Carmody's farm, +in the middle of the best of the Broadwater Vale country, was burned +down, and a vixen and her cubs had perished with it. + +Dick gave up the hounds at the end of the season. + +"I've done my best to show sport for five and twenty years," he said, +"and I'm not going to spoil it now!" + +It is impossible to deny that for Dick's wife this sacrifice had its +consolatory aspects. It was a long time now since there had been quite +enough money for anything at Mount Music. Those far-sighted guardian +angels who had compelled the investment of Lady Isabel's dowry in +gilt-edged securities, had placed the care of these in the hands of +hide-bound English trustees (the definition is Major Dick's) and the +amiable reader need therefore have no anxieties that starvation +threatened this well-meaning family, but, as Lady Isabel frequently +said, "what with the Boys, and Judith's trousseau, and the Wedding, +and One-Thing-and-Another" (which last is always a big item in the +domestic budget) the more common needs of every day had to submit to +very drastic condensation, and it was indisputable that the +Talbot-Lowry family-coach was running on the down-grade. + +The law of averages is a stringent one, and it may be assumed with +reasonable certainty, that when one ancient and respectable +family-coach runs down hill, another vehicle, probably of more modern +equipment, will go up. In the case under consideration, the operations +of this principle were less obscure than is sometimes the way with +them. As Mount Music descended, so did No. 6, The Mall, Cluhir, rise, +and Dr. Mangan's growing prosperity compensated Fate for the decline +in Major Talbot-Lowry's affairs, with a precision that, to a person +interested in the statistics of averages, might have seemed beautiful. +The Big Doctor was now the leading man in Cluhir, leader in its +councils and its politics. On his professional side, his advice and +ministrations were in demand even beyond the range of his motor car, +and the measure of his greatness may be best estimated when it is +mentioned that his motor had been the first to startle the streets of +his native town. + +Major Talbot-Lowry was of the Old Guard, who, in those now far away +times, swore never to surrender to what he held to be so thoroughly +unsportsmanlike an innovation as a motor car, and the Doctor was +accustomed to offer facetious apologies when he and his car drew up at +the Mount Music hall door. This had become a fairly frequent +occurrence. Dick was not the man he had been. When his hounds went, +old age came, and it came like an illness, bewilderingly, +unexpectedly. Dick's long, straight legs began to give at the knees, +and his square shoulders learned the hollow curve of the back of his +armchair, and submitted to it. His long sight, that had outlived the +infliction of spectacles for reading, was failing him; he had twice +tally-ho'd away a yellow cur-dog, at less than a field's distance. + +"No, Mangan, I'll be damned if I go out to make a fool of myself and +the hounds!" he said, when reproached by the Doctor for staying at +home. "The sooner I'm put down like an old hound, the better!" + +Dr. Mangan had been equal to the occasion, and had assured Dick that +Bill Kirby was "lost altogether" for want of his counsels, and that +the whole field were saying the Major was the only man to show sport, +and that he knew the way a fox'd run, as well as if he was inside him! + +"In company with another old gander, I suppose!" says poor Dick, with +tears in his eyes, being both moved and cheered by his own jest. + +The Doctor's presence was partly a reassurance and partly a menace, to +Major Dick. There had been, from time to time, further opportunities +for the investment of the Doctor's "spare ha'pence" in "something +solid and safe, like land." Aunt Bessie Cantwell's money, for +instance, had, on her demise, all come Dr. Mangan's way. There was no +need for the Major to think there was any obligation, he might call it +a mutual advantage, if he liked, anyhow, why shouldn't the money go +where it was wanted? The security was all right. + +"Oh yes," says Dick, "that's right enough, and whenever I can come to +terms with the tenants--" + +"No hurry!" the Big Doctor would answer; "five per cent. is good +enough for me!" + +The Doctor, alone of all Dick's friends, sympathised with Major +Talbot-Lowry in the matter of the tenants, and he condemned the +conduct of his own son, Barty, as heartily as did Dick that of his +nephew, in their dealings with the Coppinger estate. + +"'Tis impossible to hold these young fellows," he said, severely, +while he and Dick strolled slowly round the weedy flower garden of +Mount Music, one sunny August afternoon, four years after Larry's +coming of age; "You may be sure that I pointed out to Barty that he +and Larry were playing the deuce with you over the sale, but what +could I do? After all, Barty had to obey the orders he got from his +boss!" + +"I know, I know," responded Dick. "My dear fellow, I don't blame +_you_, my own cousin's a different pair of shoes! Richard may +fight it out with the tenants when I'm gone. He'll have to marry +money. Why, my God! If I sold at these fellows' price, the property +would hardly clear itself! At least," Dick cleared his throat and +picked himself up with a guilty jerk, as does a horse who stumbles +from carelessness, "at least, it would cover the charges, and--and the +mortgages of course--but not much more--" + +Dr. Mangan looked straight in front of him, as became a mortgagee of +delicate feeling, and said with some elaborateness, "No man need be +anxious about money whose security is Irish land, nowadays. 'Tis daily +appressiating in value." + +"To every man except the owner!" + +Dick struck hard with his ash-plant at a tall weed as he spoke, and +decapitated it with the grace and dexterity of the old cavalryman. He +put force enough into the cut to have felled a tougher foe. + +"This place is turned into a wilderness--" he went on and then, +staggering, caught at the Doctor's thick arm. + +In an instant the Big Doctor had his other arm round Dick's shoulders, +and held him firm. + +"Stand still, Major, it's nothing! You'll be all right in a minute!" +he said, meeting Dick's frightened eyes with reassuring steadiness. +"The sun's very hot. It's only a touch of giddiness--" + +He stood, a great rock of support, uttering leisurely words of +consolation, while he quietly slipped one hand down the Major's arm, +until his broad, perceptive finger-tips could feel the faint pulse +jerking under their pressure. + +Dick's colour crept back, and the veins, that had shown blue on the +sudden yellow of his cheek, began to lose their vividness. + +"That's more like it!" said the Doctor, tranquilly. "Do you sit quite +here for a minute, now, and I'll go get you a drop of something from +our friend, Mr. Evans, that'll do you no harm!" + +He established his patient on a garden seat, and left him, moving +slowly until he knew he was no longer in sight; then he swung into the +house, with swift strides that would have compelled a smaller man to +run, if he were to keep level with him. + +"Poor old lad!" he thought, compassionately; yet, blended with the +compassion, was the half-unconscious triumph of strong middle-age at +sight of the failure of a senior. "That's the first knock. He'll want +to mind himself from this out--the next one might hit him harder." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +The back stairs at Mount Music were old and precipitous. To descend +them at high noon demanded circumspection at night, when the armies of +the cockroaches were abroad; and marauding rats came flopping up and +down them, upon their unlawful occasions, only that man of iron, +Robert Evans, was proof to their terrors. Christian, even though +inured from childhood to the backstairs, held her habit skirt high, +and thanked, heaven for her riding-boots, as she made her way down the +worn stone steps, at some half-past four of a September morning. + +Mount Music was one of the many houses of its period that, with, to +quote Mrs. Dixon, "the globe of Ireland to build over," had elected to +bestow its menials in dark and complex basements. Christian and her +candle traversed the long maze of underground passages. The smell of +past cooking was in the air, the black and evil glitter of cockroaches +twinkled on the walls on either hand. This was the horrible part of +subbing, thought Christian, and told herself that nothing but the +thought of seeing the _debut_ of Dido, the puppy that she had +walked, would compensate her for facing the cockroaches. + +As she opened the kitchen door she was surprised to find a lighted +lamp on the table. In the same glance she caught a glimpse of a +figure, retreating hastily, with slippered shuffle, followed by the +trailing tappings of braces off duty. On one end of the long kitchen +table was seated a cat, in motionless meditation, like a profile in an +Egyptian hieroglyphic; at the other end was a steaming cup of cocoa +and plateful of bread and butter. + +"Long life to Evans!" thought Christian, seating herself, like the +cat, on the edge of the table, and entering upon the cocoa. + +"Miss Christian!" a raven-croak came through a slit of the +pantry-door; "keep off the Carmodys' land! Mind now what I'm tellin' +you!" The slit ceased. + +"Thank you for the cocoa, Evans, but why must I?" called Christian, +in a breath. + +A lower croak, that seemed to end with the words "black papishes," +came through the closed door. + +"Old lunatic!" thought Christian; she drank the cocoa, and putting out +the lamp, groped her way to the back-door. It opened on a shrieking +hinge, and she was out into a pale grey dawn, pure and cold, with the +shiver and freshness of new life in it. + +The Mount Music stable yard was an immense square, with buildings +round its four sides, and a high, ivy-covered battlemented wall +surrounding and overlooking all. In the middle of the yard was an +island of grass, on which grew three wide-armed and sombre Irish yews, +dating, like the walls, from the days of Queen Elizabeth. Weeds were +growing in the gravel of the wide expanse; more than one stable-door +dropped on broken hinges under its old cut-stone pediments; the +dejection of a faded and remembered prosperity lay heavy on all things +in the thin, cold air of that September dawn. + +The clatter of a horse's hoofs came cheerfully from a stable, and, as +Christian crossed the yard, a dishevelled young man, with a large red +moustache, put his head over the half-door. + +"I'm this half-hour striving to girth her, Miss," he complained, "she +got very big entirely on the grass; the surcingle's six inches too +short for her, let alone the way she have herself shwoll up agin me!" + +Charles, once ruler and lawgiver, was dead, and, with the departure of +the hounds, Major Dick's interest in the stables had died too; his +tall, grey horse was ending his days in bondage to the outside car; +the meanest of the underlings who had grovelled beneath Charles' +top-boots, was now in sole charge, and had grown a moustache, +unchecked; and Christian's only mount was a green four-year-old filly, +in whom she had invested the economies of a life-time, with but a +dubious chance of their recovery. + +"Can't you get a bit of string and tie up the surcingle Tommy?" +suggested Christian, who was now too well used to these crises in the +affairs of the stable to be much moved by them. + +"Sure, I'm after doing it, Miss. T'would make a cat laugh the ways I +have on it! She's a holy fright altogether with the mane and the tail +she have on her! I tried to pull them last night, and she went up as +straight as a ribbon in the stable!" + +The flushed face and red moustache were withdrawn, and with +considerable clattering and shouting, the holy fright was led forth. +She was a small and active chestnut mare, with a tawny fleece, a mane +like a prairie fire, and a tail like a comet. Her impish eyes +expressed an alarm that was more than half simulated, and the task of +manoeuvring her into position beside the mounting block, was +comparable only to an endeavour to extract a kitten from under a bed +with the lure of a reel of cotton. An apple took the place of the reel +of cotton, and its consumption afforded Christian just time enough to +settle herself in her saddle. Since the days of Harry the Residue +Christian had ridden many and various horses, and she had a reputation +for making the best of a bad job that had often earned her mounts from +those who, wishing to sell a horse as a lady's hunter, were anxious to +impart some slight basis of fact into the transaction. + +Tommy Sullivan watched her admiringly. + +"Where's the meet, Miss?" he said, quickly, as she started, and as if +he were struck by a sudden thought. + +"Nad Wood." + +"If they run the Valley, Miss, mind out for wire!" called Tommy after +her, as she rode out of the yard. "Carmody's fences are strung with +it!" + +He ran to the gate to watch the mare as she capered and lunged +sideways along the drive, and thanked God, not for the first time, for +the heavy hands that preserved him from the duty of riding Miss +Christian's horses. + +Christian rode past the long ivy-covered lace of the house, that +stared at her with the wall-eyed glare of shuttered windows, and down +the long avenue, that curved submissive to the windings of the +Onwashee, now black and brimming after a week of rain. Young cattle, +that had slept, according to their custom, on the roadway, scrambled +up as she came near, and crashed away through the evergreens, whose +bared lower branches bore witness to their depredations. They were a +sight hateful to Christian, who, in spite of her resignation to the +methods of her groom, cherished a regard for tidiness that she had +often found was more trouble than it was worth. + +She let Nancy, the chestnut mare, have her head, a privilege that made +short work of the remaining half-mile of avenue, and soon the stones +and mud of the high road were flying behind her, as the little mare, +snatching at her bridle, and neglecting no opportunity for a shy, +fretted on towards the sunrise, and the covert that lay, purple, on a +long hill, three miles away. + +Bill Kirby's foible was not punctuality; when Christian arrived at +the appointed cross-roads in the middle of Nad Wood she found a +patient little group of three or four men, farmers, all of them, she +thought, waiting under the dewy branches of the beeches for the +arrival of the hounds. One of them rode quickly from the group to meet +her. A young man, with a slight figure and square shoulders, who was +riding a long-legged bay horse, that, like its rider, was unknown to +Christian. The light under the beech trees was dim and green, and such +faint illumination as the grey and quiet sky afforded, was coming, +like this rider, to meet Christian. He was close to her before he +spoke, then he caught his cap off his head and waved it, and shouted: +"Hurrah, Christian! Here I am! Home again! Don't pretend you never saw +me before, because I won't stand swagger from you!" + +"Larry! Not you? Not really?" + +He had her hand by this time, and was shaking it wildly despite the +resentment of the chestnut mare, at the sudden proximity of the bay +horse. + +"Yes! Me all right! _Moi qui vous parle_--as we say in French +Paris! I only got home last night. I bought this chap at Sewell's on +my way through. He's a County Limerick horse. I bet he's a goer! How +do you like him?" + +It was like Larry to require, instantly, praise and recognition for +his new purchase, but Christian wasn't thinking of the horse. Her +wide, clear eyes were fixed on his rider, her mind was a hustle of +questions. + +Had he changed? Would he stay? Did he know that he was "in black +books" with her father? Would he care if he did know? What ages it +seemed--! Four years, wasn't it? Her brain was working too hard to +remember, but she certainly remembered that he had not had a moustache +when he was last at home; such a fanciful little French scrap of a +moustache as it was too, made of pure gold! + +"I rather like it, Larry!" she said, beaming at him; "_quite_ +nice!" + +"What? What's quite nice?" says Larry, beaming back; "oh, +_this_?" He gave the moustache an extra upward twist. "Yes, +rather so! Beats the Kaiser's to fits, I flatter myself! I'm glad you +like it, but I don't see how you could help it!" + +Yes! This was the old Larry, the right one; Christian felt very glad. +It might so easily have been some one else, some one not half so nice +as her own old Larry. + +"Why on earth didn't you say you were coming? Cousin Freddy told us +that you were painting at Etaples." + +"So I was till one fine day I 'took the notion for to cross the raging +ocean,' and I'm jolly glad I did too! Oh, by Jove! Look at old Bill +and the hounds! What a swell! Christian, do you know I haven't seen a +hound for four years! Do you mind if I call them 'dogs,' just till I +get used to them a bit?" + +There are few bonds more enduring than those that are woven round the +playmates of childhood. In how many raids had Larry not been +Christian's trusted leader! What stolen dainties had they not shared, +what punishments not endured together! Larry's three years of +seniority had only deepened the reverence and loyalty that he had +inspired in his youngest follower; he had never presumed upon them; he +had been a chieftain worthy of homage, and he had Had all Christian's. +There are some people who appear to change their natures when they +grow up. They may have been pleasing as little boys or girls; they may +be equally agreeable as men and women, but there is no continuity and +no development. They have become new creatures. Christian, alone of +her family, was essentially as she had ever been, and, being of those +whose inward regard is as searching as their outward observation, she +knew it. Now, Larry had come back again, and in half-a-dozen sentences +she knew that neither had he changed, and that with him her ancient +leader had returned. + +The Wood of Nad (which, being interpreted, means a nest) filled a +pocket on the side of Lissoughter Hill, and had thence spread over the +crest of the hill, and ended near the cross-roads at which the hounds +had met. + +"Don't holloa away an old fox. I want to kill a cub if I can. I'll let +you know if the hounds get away below. You needn't be afraid I won't! +Open the gate!" + +Thus, magisterially, the Master, standing at the gate into the wood, +with the hounds crushing round his horse's heels, "Leu in there!" + +With a squeal or two of excitement from Dido and her brethren-puppies, +the hounds squeezed through the narrow gateway, and were swallowed up +by the wood. + +Larry returned to Christian's side. + +"I hate not seeing Cousin Dick out," he began; "what a pity he gave +'em up! Why did he? You know, Christian, you were pretty rotten about +writing to me! Aunt Freddy never tells me a thing about the Hunt! I +didn't even know Cousin Dick had chucked till I saw it in _The +Field_." + +Larry was staring at Christian as he spoke. He, like her was searching +for his former comrade; but, unlike her, was doing so unconsciously, +as Larry did most things: What he believed himself to be doing was +appraising her appearance from a painter's point of view. He found he +had forgotten her eyes. He tried to think of them in terms of paint; +_Brun de Bruxelles_, and a touch of cadmium, or was it _Verte +Emeraude_? Hang it! How can paint do more than suggest the colours of +a sunlit moorland pool? Was it the white hunting-tie that gave that +special "value" to her face He had forgotten how delicious in tone was +the faint colour that just tinted her cheek; so hopeless a word as +pink was not to be thought of; just a hint of _Rose Garance dore_, +might do it. And to get the drawing of those subtle outlines the +ineffable refinement of all her features. Larry put his head on one +side, and screwed up his eyes (remembering faithfully the injunctions +of "dear old Chose," _en clignant bien les yeux_) and said to himself +that she would put dear old Chose himself to his trumps, and then +maybe he wouldn't get her right! + +Aloud he said, peremptorily and professionally: + +"Christian, I'm going to paint you! Eight o'clock at the studio +to-morrow morning, _Ma'mselle, s'il vous plait_!" + +Christian's response was closured by a wild outcry from the wood, +hounds and horn lifting up their voices together in sudden delirium. +Old horses pricked their ears, and young ones, and notably, Nancy, +began to fret and to fidget. Some one said, unnecessarily: "That's +him!" A man, farther down the road, turned his horse, and standing in +his stirrups, stared over the wall into the thick covert, rigid as a +dog setting his game. Then he held up his hat, and, a moment later, +something brown glided, with the fluent swiftness of a fish in a +stream, across the road and over the opposite wall. The scream that +followed him was not needed; was, indeed, hardly heard in the +crashing, clashing clamour of the back, as they came pitching headlong +over the wall of the wood, and hurling themselves at the opposite +wall. It was high, and had a coped, top, and the yelling hounds broke +against it, and fell, like waves against a cliff. A couple achieved +it, and the anguish of their comrades, as they heard them go away, +full-cry, on the line, redoubled. In the same instant, Larry was off +his tall bay. He flung his reins to Christian, and was into the +struggling pack. It is no easy matter to heave a hound over a high +wall, but Larry and a young farmer had somehow shoved over four +couple, before Bill Kirby and his whipper-in came and swept the +remainder to a place of possible entrance a little further on. + +Larry snatched his plunging horse from Christian, and started to +gallop before he was fairly in the saddle, kicking his right foot into +the stirrup as he went, and shouting gratitude to Christian for having +held the horse. It had not been easy. Nancy had proved the accuracy of +her groom's statement by again "going up as straight as a ribbon" when +the hounds crossed the road, and the bay had not been backward in +emulating her efforts. Bill Kirby had had luck; the fox had run +left-handed under the wall, and the leading hounds met the Master, +with the body of the pack, at the verge of the wood on its farther +side. A bank, pitted with rabbit-holes, a space of stony lane with a +pole at its farther end, and Nad Wood was a thing of the past. + +Outside, a fair stretch of grass presented itself, falling in mild +gradients to the banks of the Broadwater, sprinkled with cattle, +dotted with groups of trees clustering round white farm houses, from +whose chimneys the thin, blue lines of the smoke of morning fires were +just beginning to ascend. + +But few are able to spare much thought for others during a first burst +out of covert, their strictly personal affairs being as sufficient for +them as is the day's share of good and evil for the day; but Larry, +looking often over his shoulder as he galloped, did not fail to note, +despite his engrossment in his new purchase, the ease and competence +that marked Christian's dealings with the chestnut mare, to whom the +twin gifts of imagination and invention had been lavishly granted. It +has been ingeniously said that the enemy of the aboriginal horse was a +creature of about the size of a dinner-plate, that lay hidden in +grass; nothing less than a concealed dinner-service would have +sufficed to account for the mysterious alarms that repeatedly swept +Nancy from her course; wafting her, like a leaf, sideways from a +stream, impelling her to swing, from the summit of a bank, back to the +field from which she had wildly sprung; suggesting to her that safety +from the besetting dangers could alone be secured by following the bay +horse (whom, after the manner of young horses, she had adopted as a +father) so closely, and at such a rate of speed, that a live torpedo +attached to his tail could hardly have been a less desirable +companion. + +At a momentary check, an elderly farmer, many of whose horses had owed +to Christian their first introduction to a side saddle, spoke to her. + +"For God's sake, Miss Christian," he said, fervently, "go home with +that mare! She's very peevish! I wouldn't like to be looking at her! +She has that way of jumping stones her nose'd nearly reach the ground +before her feet!" + +"Never fear that young lady's able for her!" struck in another farmer, +the former owner of Nancy. "How well yourself'd be asking her to be +riding nags that couldn't see the way that little mare'd go! Didn't I +see her go mountains over the stone gap awhile ago? And yourself seen +the same, John Kearney!" + +"If it was mountains and pressy-pices that was in it itself," returned +John Kearney, severely, "I'd say the same, Michael Donovan. Miss +Christian knows me, and I'm telling her--" + +At this point, however, Christian's attention was absorbed by Dido, +who was comporting herself with precocious zeal, and, an instant +after, the dispute was ended by the shriek with which she proclaimed +her success. For some fifteen minutes the hounds ran hard and fast; +Nancy began to settle down, and to realise that her adopted parent +invariably changed feet on a bank, and never jumped stones as if he +were a cork bursting perpendicularly from a bottle of champagne. The +fox was taking them through the best of the Broadwater Vale country; +pasture-field followed pasture-field, in suave succession, the banks +were broad and benevolent, the going clean and firm. The sun had just +risen, and was throwing the long blue shadows of the hedge-row trees +on the dew-grey grass. The river valley was full of silver mists, +changing and thinning, like the visions of a _clairvoyant_, +yielding slowly the beauty of the river, and of its garlanding trees, +to those who had eyes to see. The sky became bluer each instant as the +sun rushed up, and Bill Kirby said to himself that the hunt was too +good to last, and the scent would soon be scorched out. + +Not long afterwards came the check. The fox had run through a strip of +plantation, and in the succeeding field the scent failed. It was a +wide pasture-field, in which a number of young cattle were running, +snorting, bellowing, and gathering themselves into defensive groups at +the unwonted sight of hounds. + +"That's a nice little plan of a mare!" said the young farmer who had +helped Larry with the hounds, drawing up beside Christian, "and you +have her in grand condition, Miss; she's as round as a bottle! She has +a great jump in her!" he went on. "She fled the last fence entirely; +she didn't leave an iron on it! She was hopping off the ground like a +ball!" + +"That was no credit to her!" said John Kearney, eyeing the mare and +her rider gloomily. + +"'Twas a sweet gallop altogether," said Nancy's former owner, +addressing Christian, and ignoring Mr. Kearney's challenge, "and the +mare carried you to fortune! But sure it'd be as good for you to take +her home now, Miss Christian, she has enough done. The fences from +this out aren't too good at all." He cast a glance at Kearney. + +"Faith, and that's true for you," said Kearney quickly, "Be said by us +now, Miss Christian, and go home. The road isn't but two fields back. +The hounds'll do no more good, sure the sun's too strong." + +"Where are we?" broke in Larry, joining the group; "I've lost my +bearings." + +"Them's the Carmodys' bounds, sir," said Michael Donovan in a +colourless voice, indicating the next fence. + +"Carmody's?" said Larry. "Then isn't the Derrylugga gorse somewhere +hereabouts? I see he's casting them ahead." + +"It's burnt down," said Christian, hurriedly. Something in her face +checked Larry's exclamation. In Ireland people learn to be silent on a +very imperceptible hint. + +The farmers moved away. Said Michael Donovan in a low voice to John +Kearney: + +"Will she go back, d'ye think?" + +"I d'no. Har'ly, I think!" + +"It'd be a pity anything'd happen her. She's a lovely girl to ride!" + +"You may say that, Michael! The father gave her the sate, but it was +the Lord Almighty gave her the hands!" said old Kearney, devoutly. + +"Maybe He'll mind her, so!" responded Michael Donovan, without +irreverence. + +The shifting of responsibility brought some ease of mind. + +"God grant it!" said John Kearney. + +Christian was ordinarily possessed of an innate reasonableness that +responded to reason, but fear was not in her, and an appeal to reason +was least potent with her when she was in the saddle. The veiled hints +of danger, by which from, Evans onwards, she had been beset, only woke +the spirit of revolt that slept in her but little less lightly than it +had slept in her childhood, and were as fuel on the flame the run had +kindled. + +"Larry," she said, with a light in her eyes, and a flush in her +cheeks, "do _you_ think I ought to go back?" + +"Go back? Why should you?" + +Larry, having received a hasty sketch of the position, gave his advice +with all the assurance of complete ignorance. "Your father has the +sporting rights--anyhow, I don't believe they'll stop you. Irishmen +are--" + +Dissertation as to what Irishmen were or were not, attractive though +it was to a young man who knew nothing of the subject, was checked by +the success of Bill Kirby's cast ahead. Half way across the big field, +the hounds, who had been industriously spreading themselves, and +examining blades of grass and fronds of bracken with the intentness of +botanists, came, with a sudden rush, to a deep note from old Bellman, +and, as suddenly, broke into full-cry, with the unanimity of an +orchestra when the baton comes down. They headed for "Carmody's +bounds," and were over that solid barrier, and running hard across the +succeeding field, before most of the riders had realised what had +happened. The bounds fence was an honest jump--big, but safe. Nancy, +at the heels of the bay horse, came up on to it with a perfection that +banished all other thoughts from Christian's mind. On the landing +side, under the bank, was a strong-running stream, and two or three of +the horses, at sight of it, checked on the wide top of the bank, and +tried to turn. Not so Nancy. It was enough for her that her father by +adoption had not hesitated. She slid her forefeet a little way down +the grassy side and went out over the water as if the bank had been a +springboard. It was only then, at the gorgeous moment of successful +landing, that Christian was aware of a young man running towards the +riders, bawling, and demonstrating with something that might be a gun. + +"That's one of the Carmodys, Miss," said old Kearney, galloping near +her. "Don't mind him! It's as good for you to go on now. That's the +house below--" + +"Come on, Christian!" shouted Larry; "he'll do no harm!" + +The thought crossed Christian's mind that it might be better to +disregard these counsels, and to stop and speak to the assailant, but +Nancy had views of her own, and such arguments as a snaffle could +offer were quite unavailing. "I might as well go on," thought +Christian, "we shall be off his land in a minute." + +A very high bank, crowned with furze and thorn bushes, divided them +from the next field; there was but one gap in it, near the farm-house, +and this was filled with a complicated erection of stones and sods, +built high, with light boughs of trees laid upon them; not a nice +place, but the only practicable one. Bill Kirby and his whipper-in +jumped it; some of the farmers drew back, but Larry's bay horse +charged it unhesitatingly, and soared over it with the whole-souled +gallantry of a well-bred horse. Nancy, pulling hard, followed him. +Christian heard Larry shout, and, looking round, saw him turn in his +saddle and strike with his crop at something unseen. At the last +instant, as the mare was making her spring, a second man appeared on +the farther side of the jump, yelling, and brandishing a wide-bladed +hay-knife. To stop was impossible; Christian could only utter a sharp +cry of warning, as Nancy, baulked by the suddenness of the attack, but +unable to stop herself, went up almost straight into the air, and came +down on the boughs, with her hindlegs on one side of them and her +forelegs on the other. Then she fell forward on to her knees, and +rolled on to her off shoulder, her hind legs still entangled in the +boughs. Christian fell with her, and as the mare's shoulder came to +the ground, her rider was thrown a little beyond her on the off side. +The man, having saved himself by a leap to one side, had instantly +taken to his heels. + +Christian was on her feet before even Larry, quick as he was in +stopping his horse and flinging himself from his back, could reach +her. + +"Are you hurt?" The question, so fraught with fear, and breathless +with remembered disasters, was answered almost before it was uttered. + +"Not a scrap! Absolutely all right; but I don't know about Nancy--" + +One of the mare's hind feet was wedged in the fork of a bough; she +struggled fiercely, and in a second or two she had freed both her hind +legs from the tangle of twigs, and lay prone at the foot of the +barricade. + +"She's all right! He didn't touch her," said Larry, catching her by +the bridle. "Come, mare!" + +Nancy made an effort, attempting to get on to her feet, and rolled +over again on to her side. + +"Oh, get the mare up, one of you!" shouted Larry, wild with the rage +that had gathered force from the terror by which it had first been +strangled. "I want to go after that damned coward--" + +He caught his horse's bridle from a man who had climbed over the bank, +leaving his own horse on the farther side. + +"Why the devil did none of you stop the brute?" he stormed at the +little group, now standing on the bank, looking down upon the +prostrate mare, while he tried to steady his plunging horse in order +to mount. + +"It's no good for you, sir!" called John Kearney to him; "he's away +back of the house, ye'll never get him!" + +"Don't go, Larry," said Christian, who was kneeling by Nancy, +caressing her and murmuring endearments. "I'm afraid she's badly +hurt." + +The mare was lying still. Michael Donovan, who had bred her, slipped +his hand under her, and drew it out, red with blood. + +"Go after him, if ye like, the bloody ruffian!" he said, furiously, +"but the mare will never rise from this! Oh, my lovely little mare!" + +"What do you mean?" Larry let his horse go, and flung himself on his +knees beside Donovan. Christian, colourless continued to try and +soothe Nancy, who lay without moving, though her frightened eye turned +from one to another, and her ears twitched. + +"Staked she is!" roared Donovan; "that's what I mean! Look at what's +coming from her!" + +He broke into a torrent of crude statements, made, if possible, more +horrible by curses. + +Larry struck him on the mouth with his open hand. + +"Shut your mouth! Remember the lady!" + +Michael Donovan took the blow as a dog might take it, and without more +resentment. + +Christian quickly put her hand on his shoulder. + +"Don't mind, Michael. Let me see what has happened to her--" + +Nancy's eye rolled back at Christian, as she stooped over her, leaning +on Donovan. Already, a dark pool was forming beside her. + +"You couldn't see where the branch bet her, Miss," said Donovan, +quieted by Christian's touch, "but there's what done it!" He pointed +to the sharp, jagged end of one of the branches, red with blood. + +"The Vet--" said Christian, trying to think, speaking steadily. +"Couldn't someone fetch Mr. Cassidy?" + +"No good, my dear," said old Kearney, wagging his head; "No good at +all! There's no medicine for her now but what'll come out of a gun!" + +Christian looked up into the faces of the little knot of men round +her. + +"Is that true?" she said, watching them. + +And all the time a voice in her mind said to her that it was true. + +"God knows I wouldn't wish it for the best money ever I handled," said +one man, and looked aside from her eyes. + +Another shook his head, and muttered something about the Will o' God. +A third said it was the sharp end of the branch that played hammock +with her; he lost a cow once himself the same way. Old Kearney summed +up for the group. + +"There is no doubt in it, Miss Christian, my dear child--" + +Christian leaned hard on Larry's shoulder as she rose to her feet. + +"I'm going to get Carmody's gun," she said, beginning to walk away. +"He had one. I saw it. I don't suppose he'll mind lending it to me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +There are illnesses that take possession of their victims slowly and +quietly, with an imperceptible start, and a gradual crescendo of +envelopment; others there are, that strike, sudden as a hawk, or a +bullet. And this is true also of that other illness, the fever of the +mind and heart that is called Love. An old song says, and says, for +the most part, truly, + + "I attempt from Love's sickness to fly in vain." + +Larry Coppinger did not attempt to fly, even though he knew as +precisely the moment when the fever struck him, as did Peter's wife's +mother when her fever left her. Perhaps he might then have tried to +escape; he knew it was too late now. That fatal rapturous moment had +been when he saw Christian setting forth, a lonely, piteous figure, to +fetch Carmody's gun. He had followed her, and his entreaties to her to +let him deal with the matter had prevailed. She had turned back, and +kneeling down again, kissed the white star on Nancy's forehead, +murmuring something to her that Larry could not hear. He had put her +saddle on his own horse; when he mounted her, she had stooped down +from the tall horse's back, and had whispered: "'That thou hast to do, +do quickly.'" He went over it all in his mind; that was all she had +said, and he had not seen her since. + +On that afternoon as he moved about the room he had chosen for his +studio, and unpacked the monster cases he had brought from Paris, he +remembered how, long ago, Mrs. Twomey had laughed at him when he told +her he was never going to marry. + +"Wait awhile!"' mocked Mrs. Twomey, "one day it'll sthrike ye all in +the minute--the same as a pairson'd get a stitch when they'd be +leaning-over a churn!" + +Well, it had so struck him, and struck him hard, and he was reeling +from the blow. + +Her courage, oh God! her courage! How she had ridden that little mad +devil of a mare! There wasn't a man out who would have got her over +that big country as she had! And then, when that cur had done his +dirty work and bolted, was there a whimper or a cry from her? She had +faced the music; she had started off to get the gun herself. He knew, +just a little, just dimly, he told himself humbly, what the sight of +suffering was to her, and she had stood up to it. She, with her +passion for animals; she, with her tender, tender heart! Larry, who +believed himself to be profoundly introspective, did not know that it +was his own flawless physical courage, finding and recognising its +fellow in Christian, that had first lit the flame. He thought it was +her face, with its delicate charm, its faint, elusive loveliness, that +had felled him, laid him low, devastated him. He pleased himself in +reiterating his overthrow, in enumerating its causes, while he banged +bundles of canvases on to the floor, and pitched clattering +sketching-easels and stools into corners, and covered tables and +chairs with the myriad colour-boxes, sketch-books, palettes of every +shape and variety, brushes, bottles, all the snares that the ingenious +_marchand a couleurs_ spreads in the sight of the bird, and into +which the bird, especially if he be, like Larry, a rich amateur, +cheerfully hops. He hardly was aware of what he was doing, his hot +thoughts raced in his brain. It seemed to him now to have been years +ago that he saw her, in the grey light, riding towards him on Nancy. +She had said that he might paint her; that was all that he had thought +of then. Much had happened since then; the supreme thing had happened +since then! Nothing else really mattered, he thought, sitting down on +the edge of a half-empty packing case, and lighting a cigarette, not +even the shooting of Nancy. He would give her a dozen Nancys if she +wanted them! The first and most important thing in the world was to +see her again; and he had to arrange how, and when, and where he +should paint her. Obviously he must at once proceed to Mount Music. + +There is a saying among Larry's countrymen: "If a man want a thing he +_mus'_ have it!" Fortune had, so far, been kind to Larry, and +those things that he had wanted sufficiently, he had had. It now +remained to be proved if the rule were to have an exception. + +"I'm going over to Mount Music just now," he said to Frederica at tea +time. "I want to see them all. Will you come, Aunt Freddy?" + +Aunt Freddy looked perturbed. + +"You haven't seen Cousin Dick yet, have you?" + +"No. How could I? He wasn't out. I've seen no one yet but Christian." + +His voice lingered on the beloved name, beloved, consciously, since so +few hours. + +But Aunt Freddy was not apt to perceive fine shades, and she was, +moreover, occupied with the framing of a warning. + +"You know that Cousin Dick is a good deal changed since you saw him?" +she began. "He had a sort of heart attack about a year ago--Dr. Mangan +was with him, luckily. They have to try and keep him very quiet, and +the worst of it is that so little puts him out." + +"Well, I shan't put him out, shall I?" said Larry, confidently, +beginning on a third slice of cake, love not having, so far, impaired +his appetite. + +"He was fearfully put out about your selling to the tenants. He said +young Mangan had no right to advise you to sell so low. He told me +that even Dr. Mangan was quite against his doing so." + +Miss Coppinger regarded her nephew with anxiety. After four years of +absence, one never knew exactly how much a young man might not have +changed. That little, upturned, golden moustache might not by any +means be the whole of it. The ice barrier had been forgotten in the +excitement of his return, but even though she understood--and tried +not to feel that the fact had its mitigations--that all young men in +France were atheists, that other fact remained, that next Sunday, when +she started for Knock Ceoil church, Larry, if he went anywhere, would +go to the white chapel on the hill. Aunt Freddy was afraid of no one +where she believed herself to be right (and the Spirit of the Nation +had long since assured her of this in matters of religion); least of +all was she afraid of "a brat of a boy," whom, as she boasted, she had +often whipped soundly when he deserved it. But, unfortunately, the +brat had her heart in his hands, and her heart was softer than Aunt +Freddy knew; and this gave the brat an unfair advantage. + +"Then you know, Larry," she continued, her eyes showing what her firm +mouth did not admit; "you know, my dear boy, it was rather--well, +rather a shock to us to see in the papers your name proposed as the +Nationalist candidate here. It upset Dick very much, and, I must say," +she added, unflinchingly, "me too!" + +Larry put down the third piece of cake, half-finished, and went round +the tea-table, and sitting on the arm of Frederica's chair, put his +arm round her thin shoulders. + +"I'm so sorry!" he said, knowing his power, and using it, "dear Auntie +Fred! I ought to have written to you. I forgot all about the beastly +thing. But you wouldn't want me to go back of my word? As for the +property--well, I thought that was only my own affair. I've come all +right out of it; why shouldn't I give the tenants the best terms I +could?" + +"Cousin Dick says--" began Frederica, standing to her guns. + +"And that other show," went on Larry, disregarding what Cousin Dick +might have said. "Goodness knows when there'll be an election--" + +"That doesn't alter the fact," said Frederica, firmly. + +"Yes, I know. Of course I must hold by my own convictions, but let's +put off the row until the time comes! One is bound to have rows at +elections! I don't want to fight now!" + +He pressed a kiss upon her forehead. He was feeling in love and +charity with all men. To wheedle Aunt Freddy into forgiveness was the +first outlet that presented itself for the excitement that was +consuming him. + +Larry walked to Mount Music through the Wood of the Ownashee, alone. +Miss Coppinger said she disliked the short way across the river by the +stepping stones, and preferred to drive the now venerable Tommy round +by the road; in her heart, brave as she was, she trusted that Larry +would have got through his meeting with Dick before she arrived. +Therefore did Larry step along the pebbly path by the river, under the +dense canopy of beechen boughs, with, for companions, only the two +hound puppies that Bill Kirby did not fail to foist annually upon all +amenable friends. These lumbered after Larry's quick foot, with all the +engaging absurdity of their kind; tripping over their own enormous +feet, chewing outlying portions of one another, as ill-brought-up +babies chew their blankets; sitting down abruptly and unpremeditatedly, +and watching with deep dubiety the departing form of their escort, as +though a sudden and shattering doubt of his identity had paralysed +them, until some contrary wind of doctrine blew them into action again, +and they hurled themselves upon his trail, filled with the single +intention to rush between his legs. Nothing but that instinct of +self-preservation that operates independent of the reason, preserved +Larry from frequent and violent overthrow. His head was in the clouds; +he was abandoning himself to dreams, with the very same headlong +enthusiasm that Scandal and Steersman brought to bear upon the problems +of existence. He strode past the glade that had been the scene of the +Cluhir picnic without so much as a thought of Tishy Mangan. Had you or +I reminded him of that brief, yet moving, episode, he would probably +have regarded us with wide, bewildered, blue eyes, and asked for +details. Then, as memory awakened, he would have laughed delightedly, +and said: "Yes! By Jove! So I was! But Georgy cut me out, didn't he?" +And he might have added that there had been scores of them since Tishy, +he had forgotten half of them--but this, THIS! Larry would then, +inevitably, have lapsed into rhapsody, as would be no more than was +decent and right in a young man of artistic temperament, and you or I, +our malign intention baffled, would have retired in deserved confusion. + +Old Evans was in the hall as Larry walked in through the open door. He +received Larry's hand-shake coldly; the four years that had passed +since Larry had seen him had withered and greyed him; Larry, something +dashed by the reception, remembered the title given him long ago by +Christian--"the many-wintered crow,"--and found satisfaction in +deciding that the crow was a scald-crow, and a sour old divil at that; +anyhow, Evans had always had a knife into him, so it made no +difference. + +In the drawing-room things went well enough, even though there was an +unexplainable chill in the atmosphere. Cousin Isabel was as kind and +gentle and vague as ever; Judith was there, very handsome and +prosperous, not overenthusiastic in welcome, rather inclined to +patronise a very young man, quite two months younger than a married +lady of position and importance. Nevertheless, there was something +unregenerate about her eye, that, taken in connection with the two +subalterns in whose car she had come to call at Mount Music, suggested +that Bill Kirby might at times find life stirring. John, recently +ordained, now a very decorative curate in a London church, was there, +even more patronising than Judith, and undecided whether to regard +Larry with suspicion, as a brand still smouldering from the fires of +secularist France, or affectionately, as a member of what, in one of +his earlier sermons, he had described as "Our ancient Mother Church, +dear Peopul! Beloved, but in some matters, that I will presently +indicate to you, mistaken!" + +The subalterns were remote, not approving of the style of Larry's tie +(which he had bought in Paris, and differed from theirs) and Cousin +Dick was not there. + +"You must go and see him, dear Larry," says Cousin Isabel, "he's in +the study." + +"And Christian? Though, of course, I met her this morning--" says +Larry. + +Christian, poor child, went out for a little walk with the dogs just +now. Christian (poor child) had felt that wretched business this +morning so terribly. The wretched business was gone into, thoroughly +and exhaustively, and yet Larry felt that across one corner of it +there was a fold of curtain drawn. He said he would go and see Cousin +Dick. There was always a chance that Christian, also, might be in the +study. The axiom that "If a man want a thing he _mus'_ have it," +should, in Larry's case, have the corollary that he must have it at +once. + +The Major was standing by the chimney piece in the study, warming one +foot after the other at the fire that Evans had just replenished. +Larry met the scald-crow at the door, and Evans passed him "as if," +thought Larry, disgustedly, "he had been seeing me every day for a +year! The old beast always hated me!" Larry did not like being hated. + +Cousin Dick's greeting was more like old times. Dick was one of those +people whose wrath has a tendency to intermit and get cold, even to +perish, temporarily, from forgetfulness. On the other hand, in +compensation, perhaps, for this failing, it was a fire easily +rekindled. He was still shaking Larry's hand, and looking him up and +down, affectionately, and withal, with the inevitable patronage of a +long-legged man for one from whom Nature has withheld similar +advantages, when Larry discovered the large presence of Dr. Mangan +uplifting itself from the chair facing Cousin Dick's, by the fire. +(But Christian was not there. He resigned himself.) There was no want +of warmth in the Big Doctor's reception. He was quite aware of this +himself, and was artist enough to know how useful an asset was the +fact that he was genuinely fond of Larry. He had indeed proposed to +exhibit his affection in pleasing contrast to the coolness of Larry's +Protestant relatives, and that the Major had forgotten the role +assigned to him, was a little disappointing. "But wait awhile!" +thought the Big Doctor, who, among his other elephantine qualities, +possessed that of patience. + +The Major seated himself in front of the fire, and Larry pulled up a +chair, wondering in his heart what these old boys wanted with a fire +this lovely afternoon, and delivered himself to the old boys and to +conversation. This, naturally, set with a single movement towards the +event of the morning. "A real likely little mare, and shaping well, +I'm told," says Dick, "and by the bye, Larry, that's a dev'lish nice +horse of yours that Christian came back on. Where did you get him?" + +These hunting men were incorrigible, the Doctor thought, seeing the +Carmody question in danger of being side-tracked. + +"Things have come to a funny way in this country," he observed, "when +a fellow will deliberately chance killing a young lady, rather than +let her ride over his land--and she having a right to ride over it +into the bargain!" + +It needed but little to start Major Talbot-Lowry again on the topic +that had occupied him unceasingly since Christian's return that +morning. Beginning with the burning of the Derrylugga gorse covert, +and moving on through threatening letters, and rents deliberately +withheld, he lashed himself into one of the quick furies that Larry +remembered well. What Larry was less prepared for than was his friend, +Dr. Mangan, was the sudden turn that the storm took in his direction. + +"The blackguards think they can frighten me into selling on their own +terms!" shouted Dick, "and that damned priest of theirs--I beg your +pardon, Mangan, but the fellow doesn't behave like a clergyman, and +it's impossible to think of him as one--is backing them up, and I may +say"--here it was that the heart of the storm was revealed--"I may say +that I'm very little obliged to your son, or to his principal here, +for the part they have played in the affair! That was the beginning of +the whole thing!" He turned fiercely upon Larry, his tenor voice +pitched on a higher key. "How could I, with my property loaded with +charges, that were no fault of mine, sell at the price you could +afford to take? Look at the price that fellow--what's his damned +name?--Brady, got for his farm, for the tenant-right alone, mind you! +Forty years' purchase! And I'm offered seventeen for the fee simple!" + +Dick was standing up on the hearthrug, towering over the Doctor and +Larry in their low chairs. Larry noticed how thin he had become, and +how the well-cut grey clothes, that he always wore, hung loosely on +his shrunken figure. "You're a young fellow now, Larry; wait till +you've been for thirty years doing your best for your property and +your country, and getting no thanks! Thanks!" Dick gave a brief and +furious laugh. "I've kept the hounds for them. I've slaved on the +Bench and on Grand Juries. I've got them roads and railways, and God +knows what else--whatever they wanted--I've sat at the Board of +Guardians, and done my best to keep down the rates, till they kicked +me out to make room for men who would sell their souls for a sixpence, +and made their living out of bribes!" + +"Oh, come, come, Major, it's not so bad as all that!" said the Big +Doctor, soothingly, as Dick stopped, panting for breath. "Don't mind +it now!" + +"But I _must_ mind it!" shouted Dick. "When I think of how I've +been treated, and plenty more like me, loyal men who run straight and +do their best, I declare to God I feel I don't know which I hate +worst, the English Government, that pitches its friends overboard to +save its own skin, or my own countrymen, that don't know the meaning +of the word gratitude!" + +He turned again upon Larry: "And upon my word and honour, Larry, I +didn't think that your father's son would have been tarred with that +brush, anyhow!" + +"Now, Major," broke in Dr. Mangan, again, "you know we agreed that +there was no use in attaching too much importance to that transaction. +Barty and Larry here were in a very difficult position, and even +though you and I might not have approved entirely of their action--" + +"But, Doctor," interrupted Larry, bewildered, and dismayed, "You--I +thought you had advised Barty--" + +The Big Doctor frowned at him, and winked too, while he laid his huge +white hand on his watch-pocket, tapping with his middle finger on the +spot which, as he knew, the average layman dedicated to the heart. He +trusted to Larry's quickness, and did not trust in vain. + +"A sort of heart attack," Aunt Freddy had said. + +"I'm most frightfully sorry, Cousin Dick," Larry began, hurriedly, +before a worse thing happened. "Somehow, I never thought--you see I +was out of the country--it seemed to me that--" he was going to +repeat those comforting sedatives about leaving the man at the helm to +bark for you--(Heavens! He had been on the point of saying that! Was +he going to laugh?)--but he couldn't give Barty away. He rushed into +apology, regret, abuse of his own ignorance, and imbecility, and the +Big Doctor, at each pause in the penitence, poured a little oil and +wine into the wounds for which Larry and the Carmodys were jointly +responsible, and Dick's anger, like the red that had flared to his +face, fell like a spent flame. + +"Say no more, boy, say no more," he said, dropping into the chair from +which he had leaped in the course of his _apologia pro vita sua_; +"I daresay you knew no better--anyhow, you didn't mean to do me a bad +turn--" + +Larry took his hand. "You know that, Cousin Dick," he said, in +profound distress. "Of all people in the world--the very last. If +there was anything I could do now--" + +"Well now, I'll tell you what you could do!" cut in Dr. Mangan, +jovially, "you could tell our friend Evans to bring in the Major's +tumbler of hot milk and whisky, and to look sharp about it too! I +ordered he was to have it at six o'clock--" + +He looked hard at Larry, who realised that his disturbing presence was +to be removed, and forthwith removed it. + +He delivered his message, and strayed back to the big, empty hall. A +sense of aloofness, of having no place nor part in this +well-remembered house, was on him. None of them wanted him; he could +see that easily enough, and he had done Cousin Dick a bad turn. He had +said so. If it came to that, he supposed he had done Christian a bad +turn, too--Christian and Cousin Dick, the only two of the whole crowd +who had been really glad to see him. He thought of her face as she +came riding through the dusky wood to meet him. "The dawn was in it!" +he said to himself; again he saw it, lit with the light that the hunt +had kindled; and then he thought of her stricken eyes, as she looked +from one man to another, asking for the hope that they had to refuse +her. It had been all his fault, or--here the inner apologist, that is +always quick to console, interposed--not quite exactly his fault. How +was he to have known? A remembrance of Cousin Dick's undeciphered +letters came to him; even the inner apologist hung his head. In any +case--Larry's active mind resumed its deliberations--it was quite +clearly his business to find Christian and to explain to her, as far +as was possible, how things stood. + +He left the house. A garden-boy had seen Christian "going west the +avenue"; Larry collected Scandal and Steersman from the ash-pit, and +followed her "west the avenue." He walked slowly, noting how neglected +was the general aspect, how badly the avenue was in need of gravel, +remembering how in the old days, the bands of slingers had never +failed of ammunition, wondering if the Major were really as hard up as +he thought he was; wondering if they had all turned against him, and +if they would set Christian against him too. He came to the turn near +the river that led to the stepping stones, and stood, in deepening +depression, waiting, in the hope that she might come. It was seven +o'clock, the sun was setting, the sky was warming to its last +loveliness of rose and amber, and amethyst, colours with names almost +as beautiful as themselves. The long stretches of grass on either side +of the avenue were a fierce green, the brakes of bracken were burning +orange, the long shadows of the trees that fell across the roadway +were purple. The grove of yew trees, that hid the course of the river +from him, had the sharpness of a silhouette cut out of dark velvet. + +"Not really black," Larry told himself, screwing up his eyes. He moved +on to the grass, and kneeling, framed with his hands as much as seemed +good to him. In a moment, in the intoxication of beauty, he had +forgotton his troubles; Cousin Dick, singing the swan-song of the +Irish landlords; Dr. Mangan, and his bewildering change of front; even +Christian, and her views as to his responsibility for the tragedy of +the morning, stood aside to make way for the absorbing problems of +colour and composition. + +The hound puppies strolled on, side by side, heads up, and high-held +sterns, steering for nowhere in particular, oblivious as Larry of all +save the moment as it passed. A rush of rooks came like a tide across +the sky; they flew so low that the drive and rustle of their wings +scared the puppies and startled Larry. He stood up and watched the +multitudinous host swing westward to his own woods, and just then, a +couple of hundred yards ahead, at the turn where the avenue plunged +into the velvet gloom of the yew-trees, he saw Christian coming +towards him, alone, save for a retinue of dogs. + +If that old saying (already quoted with reference to Dick +Talbot-Lowry) be true, when it asserts that "wise men live in the +present, for its bounty suffices them," then was Larry Coppinger, like +his cousin, indeed a wise man. Remorse, anxiety, the wonder of the +sunset, were swept from his mind, and Christian filled it like a +flood. She looked very tired, and he told her so, eyeing her so +closely that she turned her face from him. + +"I won't be stared at and scolded! Why shouldn't I be tired if I +like?" + +"If it were only tiredness--" said Larry, with more tenderness in +his voice than he knew. "Christian, they've been telling me that it +was my fault--the rows with the tenants, and that devil coming at you +this morning--and--and everything!" + +He could not speak directly of Nancy's death; he knew what Christian +felt for her horses and dogs. "I've been looking for you everywhere. I +wanted to try and tell you what I felt--but since I've seen your +father and old Mangan, I feel too abject to dare to say I'm sorry--" + +"Why should they think it was your fault? It was my own fault. I ought +to have gone back when Kearney warned me--" + +"They meant the whole show. Beginning with Barty's selling to my +tenants, and then your father's people making trouble, and the +Carmodys burning the covert, and all the rest of it! They're quite +right! It's all my rotten fault! Christian, I'm going back to France! +I can't face you after what I've brought on you!" + +In the bad moments of life, when the bare and shivering soul stands +defenceless, waiting for evil tidings, or nerving itself to endure +condolence, Christian had ever a gentle touch; and she knew too, when +it comforted wrong-doers to be laughed at. + +"Oh, Larry! And you pretended you wanted to paint my picture!" she +said, looking at his miserable face with eyes that shone as the Pool +of Siloam might have shone after the Angel had troubled it; there were +tears in them, but there was healing, too. + +Larry took her hand and held it tight. + +"You don't mean it--how could you bear to look at me?" + +"But I shan't look at you! You will have to look at me--that is, if +you can bear it! You must try and brace yourself to the effort!" + +This, it may be admitted, was provocation on Christian's part, but, as +she told herself afterwards, desperate measures were necessary, or +they would both have burst into tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +The resolution to return to France, announced, as has been set forth, +by Mr. St. Lawrence Coppinger, was not adhered to. In the first place, +there was Barty Mangan and the various affairs that he represented; in +the second place, there was the portrait; in the third place--which +might as well, if not better, have come first--the resolve had +expired, like the flame of a damp match, in the effort that gave it +birth. + +Aunt Freddy welcomed the suggestion of the portrait with enthusiasm. +She had had four years of peace, "careing" Coppinger's Court for the +reigning Coppinger; to "care" the reigning Coppinger himself, was, she +felt, a far less peaceful undertaking. She agreed entirely with the +well-worn adage relative to idle hands, and had no illusions as to her +own capacity to offer alternative attractions. + +"I felt," she remarked to Lady Isabel, "exactly as if someone had +deposited a half-broken young horse in the drawing-room, and had told +me to exercise it! My dear, Christian's portrait is a Godsend! But I +may tell you, in strict confidence, that, so far, it's far too clever +for an ignoramus like me to make head or tail of it!" + +"It certainly fills their mornings very thoroughly," responded Lady +Isabel, rather dubiously; "Christian vanishes from breakfast time till +lunch. I suppose _you_ see more of them?" + +Aunt Freddy's reply was less distinct and definite than was usual with +her. Oh, well--occasionally--yes, generally--at least, always +sometimes--he was painting her in the garden, on that seat by the yew +hedge--so sheltered and sunny, and the weather was so perfect; she was +working in the garden herself every morning. Thus did the righteous +Frederica wriggle and prevaricate, causing Lady Isabel to assume that +the full rigours of chaperonage were complied with, while to herself, +Aunt Freddy thought that it would be perfectly ideal. But what "it" +was, she did not particularise to anyone. + +Mr. St. Lawrence Coppinger was not a great artist, but it had been +conceded to him, even in the studio, that he had pretty colour (which +was quite without reference to his own complexion) and a knack of +catching a likeness. Added to these gifts he possessed a third, in +being able to talk without hindering the activities of his brush. They +talked a great deal to each other during those long, delightful +mornings in the sunny corner by the yew-hedge; idle, intimate talk, +that wandered back to the days of the Companions of Finn, and on, +through stirring tales of the _Quartier Latin_ into the future, +and what it was to hold for them. Larry knew what his future must hold +if it was to satisfy him. Since the moment when "Love's sickness" had +laid hold of him (the same as a person would get a stitch leaning over +a churn) he had known it. While he painted her, staring deep and hard, +appraising, carefully, with his outer soul, the curve of her cheek, +the delicate drawing of her small ear, the tender droop of her dark +eyelashes, all the subtle values of light and shade, all the problem +of inherent colour, and the colour that was lent by the sky and the +green things round her, his inner soul was repeating the old saying: +"I love my eyes for looking at you!" + +Sometimes he thought he would stand it no longer, he would throw down +his palette and his brushes, and let the portrait go to blazes, and +kneel at her feet, telling her, over and over again, that he loved +her, until she would have to believe him. Yet, for there is something +inhuman about the artist, he refrained. The portrait was going so +well--the best head he had ever done--out of sight better than +anything he had done at the studio (what wouldn't he give to have a +lesson on it from old Chose!). He wouldn't break the spell of +successful work until he could carry the picture no farther. Then, he +thought to himself, oh then, he would be strong to speak! + +And, did he but know it, there was no need to speak; not any need at +all. For Christian knew. Not enough has been said about her if it has +not been made clear that, for her spirit, the barriers and coverings +that other spirits take to themselves wherewith to build hiding-places +and shelters were "of little avail. Motives and tendencies, the hidden +forces that underlie action, were perceptible to her as are to the +water-diviner the secret waters that bend and twist his hazel rod. +Well she knew that Larry loved her; he was not the first in whom she +had divined it, but he was the first whose heart, crying to her, +voicelessly, had wakened the answering chime in hers; the first, she +said to herself, and the last. She wondered, sometimes, if he knew; it +seemed incredible that he could be with her, watching her, studying +her least look, and not know. Yet, she loved him for not knowing, for +his boyishness, his babyishness, his simplicity. She wondered if she +were a fairy-woman, who by her arts had beguiled a mortal. She had met +an extraordinary woman once, in London, where anyone, however +extraordinary, is possible, and this being, so she told Larry, had +gazed at her, raptly, had then assured her that she saw her aura (blue +shot with gold) and had told her that she had a very aged soul.. + +"I felt as if I were an old boot!" said Christian. + +"Old idiot herself!" Larry said hotly; "what else did she pretend to +know about you?" + +"She said she had met me before, in a previous incarnation. She +couldn't believe that I didn't remember her. But I couldn't." + +"I'm glad you couldn't," said Larry, still angry. "I won't have you +remembering lives that I wasn't in! Anyhow, I don't believe they were +half as good as this one. I call this a thundering good life. _I_ +don't want to have been Julius Caesar or Queen Anne." + +"Oh, I daresay you weren't," said Christian, consolingly; "you don't +remind me of either of them. What would be more to the point would be +to know what you were going to be. In this life, I mean." + +"Oh, a painter first," said Larry, responding with alacrity, as do +most people, to the stimulus of discussing himself; "but not +exclusively. I shouldn't mind having the hounds for a bit, and I +should like to travel--the gorgeous East, you know--that sort of +thing. And I must say," he hesitated, "I'm rather keen to have a shot +at politics." + +He put down his palette and brushes and began to roll a cigarette, +while he walked backwards away from his easel, staring alternately at +his canvas and his model. + +"Have you forgotten that I'm the prospective candidate for this +constituency? The Home Rule ticket, you know!" He looked at his +audience with a touch of defiance; "I don't know what _you_ may +think--_my_ notion is--" + +The prospective candidate launched forth into a statement of his +notions; what, precisely, they were, is a matter that may here be +omitted. The kaleidoscope of Irish politics has made many new patterns +since Larry outlined his views for Christian, and the pattern of 1907 +interests us no more. The affinity that exists between politics and +eggs is not limited to the function of the latter in emphasising +criticism of the former; it also extends to individual characteristics. +The morning newspaper and the morning egg should be equally recent. +Larry's political notions, when he stated them, had at least the merit +of freshness, and it shall be left to them. + +Christian, listening to his ambitions, felt herself older than ever. + +"I think I should be a painter all the time, and let Bill keep the +hounds for me," she said, indulgently, "and I certainly should +_not_ play with politics--I'm certain you'd hate them." + +"Well, but I'm pledged, you know! I'm absolutely in honour bound to +play up if I'm wanted--" + +"Whether you know the game or no?" said Christian, mockingly. "Very +sporting! I'm _not_ a Home Ruler, as it happens. I've no breadth +of outlook! _I_ haven' been in France for four years!" + +"You're a reactionary!" declared Larry; "I tell you Self-Government is +in the air!" + +With all her suppleness of mind, Christian had in her something of the +inbred obstinacy of fidelity that often goes with long descent. Her +colour rose. + +"_We_ have always stood for the King!" she said, holding up her +head, and looking past Larry to the high, sailing clouds. + +Larry began to laugh. + +"Christian! It's awfully becoming to you to talk politics! Keep quite +quiet and I'll make a study of you as Britannia--or Joan of Arc--" + +It was characteristic of these young people, that in the heat of +political argument they joined battle as freely as if no other point +of contact existed for them. This it is to be born and bred in +Ireland, where people live their opinions, and everyone is a patriot +with a different point of view, and politics are a hereditary disease, +blatant as a port-wine mark, and persistent as a family nose. + +Miss Frederica, with a guilty remembrance of Lady Isabel's enquiries, +had established her weeding apparatus at a bed near the yew-hedge. She +heard the voices raised in discussion, and, catching words here and +there, felt that if these were the topics that occupied her charges, +Isabel need not have inflicted upon her the abominable nuisance of +poking in her nose where it was not wanted. Thus did Miss Coppinger +summarise the duties of a chaperon; but it must be remembered that she +had never been broken to the work, and in any case she had been out of +harness for four years. + +The luncheon gong sounded to her across the Michaelmas daisies, and +the tall scarlet lobelias, and the gorgeous dahlias of the September +garden; she gathered her tools together and projected a shriek in the +direction of the yew hedge. + +"Children! Lunch!" + +As, dizzy with stooping, she slowly reared herself to be full height, +she saw a black, moving blur on the drive beyond the garden. She +rubbed her eyes; the blur defined itself as a man in priestly black. +Not Mr. Fetherston, a she had first believed, but Father Sweeny. + +"A wolf in sheep's clothing!" thought Frederica, using as was her +wont, the well-worn phrase with guileless zest. She held that although +it might not, primarily, have been intended to describe the Roman +Catholic Priesthood, its application in a later age was obvious. + +With a cautious eye on the wolf, she approached the yew hedge. + +"Larry! Father Sweeny's at the hall door. You must ask him in to +lunch!" + +To herself she thought: "He's Larry's affair, thank goodness! And I'll +see that my young man does his duty!" + +When Frederica spoke of, or to, her nephew, as "my young man," it was +generally in connection with what she felt to be his duty, and felt +also that it was her duty to see that his was not shirked. + +Father Tim Sweeny, at lunch, at the house of his chief parishioner, +was a very different being from the damaged and ferocious bull in +hospital. Conscious of his priestly dignity and of the need of +supporting it, but shaken by the minor stresses of the situation, the +senseless multiplicity of forks and spoons, the bewildering +restrictions by which he felt himself to be webbed about, hampered, +mastered, Father Tim was as a wild bull in a net, and was even +pathetic in his unavailing efforts to prove himself equal to his +surroundings. He cleared his throat at intervals, with an authority +that seemed to prelude something more epoch-making than an assent to +one of Frederica's industrious platitudes; he snuffled and fidgeted, +eating scarcely at all, and repelling the reverential assiduities of +the servants with shattering abruptness. + +"Christian saved the situation," Frederica said, in subsequent +conversation with the Reverend Charles Fetherston; she absolutely +'charmed him to a smile.' She said afterwards that the smile made her +think of a Druidic stone circle, slightly imperfect from age! She +always thinks of absurd things; but I was grateful to her! She has an +amazing gift for setting people at their ease." + +"I'm not sure that our respected friend might not be more tolerable +when he was _not_ at his ease!" said the Reverend Charles. + +"Larry simply sulked," continued Miss Coppinger; "I'm afraid Paris +life does not inculcate much respect for religion." + +"Very possibly!" said the Reverend Charles, non-committally. "I feel +for poor Sweeny! He knows now what Purgatory is like!" + +"I assure you I was as civil as I knew how to be," asserted Frederica. + +"I'm sure you were!" said the Reverend Charles, stuffing a pipe as he +spoke, and sniggering into the bowl. + +Miss Coppinger was justified in believing that Christian had been a +success with Father Sweeny. + +"I declare I could like that gerr'l, Christian Lowry," he said to +Father Greer. "She's a good gerr'l enough. Decent! Civil!" Each +adjective of approval was launched on a snort that indicated some +co-existing irritation; "but I have me own opinion of young +Coppinger!" + +"A good one?" simpered Father Greer. + +"The reverrse!" said Father Tim, and a least four r's rang and rolled +in the word. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +The portrait of that civil and decent girl, Christian Talbot Lowry, +was finished; it had been conveyed to Mount Music and was there +established on an easel in the billiard-room The artist and the model, +having raised and lowered blinds and arranged curtains to their +liking, or as nearly to that unattainable ideal as circumstances +permitted, were now recovering from the criticism of their relations +on the completed work. + +The artist who works in the bosom of his own family has much to bear, +and, so the family consider, much to learn. Neither in endurance, nor +in the docile assimilation of instruction, had Mr. Coppinger been +conspicuously successful, and his model, on whom had rested the +weighty responsibility of keeping the peace, or, at least, of averting +open warfare between the painter and the critics, was now, albeit much +spent by her efforts, engaged in binding up the wounds inflicted on +the former by the latter. + +"If you hadn't argued with them, they would have liked it very much; +you took them the _absolutely_ wrong way! But they _really_ +are deeply impressed by it." + +"I don't care what they think; I know jolly well it's the best thing +I've ever done!" said Larry, whose temperature was still considerably +above normal. "Your mother is the only one of the lot with a soul to be +saved. _She_ didn't harangue about what she doesn't understand! _She_ +said: 'It makes me think of when she was a little child, and used to +say she saw things, and the other children used to tease her so +dreadfully'!" + +"Quite true," said Christian. "So they did! And now they're going for +you! But you never teased me, Larry." + +"Thank God, I didn't!" said Larry; he had been glowering at his +picture, but as he spoke he wheeled round, and sat down beside +Christian on the long billiard-room sofa. "Christian, you know--" he +began, stammering, and hesitating in a way that was unlike himself. + +Christian interrupted him quickly. + +"What shall you call the picture? I met Barty Mangan the other day, +and he was asking me all sorts of questions about it." + +"I shall call it 'Christian, dost thou hear them?'" said Larry, +telling himself that the moment had come. "I was feeling that about +you all the time--I mean when I was painting. Christian, you +_did_ hear them, didn't you? What were they saying? Did they say +anything about me?" + +He caught her hand and leaned to her, compelling her eyes to meet his; +"Let her see into my heart!" he thought; "she will find only herself +there!" + +And just then the door opened, and old Evans appeared. + +Larry released Christian's hand, and went red with rage up to the +roots of his fair hair. What he thought of Evans' incursion was +written so plainly on his face, that Christian, in that impregnable +corner of her mind where dwelt her sense of humour, felt a bubble of +laughter rise. + +"You asked Mrs. Dixon, Miss, to see the picture," said Evans, with a +sour look at Larry. "She's outside now." + +"Come in, Dixie," called Christian, with a sensation of reprieve. +Suspense had been trembling in the air round her; it trembled still, +but Dixie would bring respite, if not calm. + +Mrs. Dixon, ceremonially clad in black silk, sailed up the long +billiard room, majestic as a full-rigged ship. Time had treated her +well; the increase of weight that the years had brought had done +little more than help to keep the wrinkles smoothed; her love for +Christian, having survived the depredations of the larder that had +once tried it, had triumphed over the enforced economies that marked +Christian's rule as housekeeper and was now her consolation for them. +To apprehend the intention of a painting is not given to all and is a +matter that requires more experience than is generally supposed. To +find a landscape has been reversed by the hand that wields the duster, +so that the trees stand on their heads, and the sky is as the waters +that are beneath the firmament, is an experience that has been denied +to few painters, and Mrs. Dixon would have found many to sympathise +with her, as she stood in silent stupefaction before the portrait. +Larry had been justified in his belief in it, but for such as Mrs. +Dixon, its appeal was inappreciable. Christian's face was in shade, +the brown darkness of her loosened hair framed it, and blended with +the green darkness of the yew hedge. Faint reflected lights from her +white dress, touches of sunlight that came through the leaves of the +surrounding trees gave the shadowed face life. In the clear stillness +of the eyes, something had been caught of the wonder that was latent +in Christian's look, the absorption in things far away, seen inwardly, +that in childhood had set her in a place apart; rarer now, but still +there for those to see who could give confidence to her shy spirit to +forget the limitations of this world, and to stray forth to meet +invisible comrades from other spheres. Sometimes it has been given to +an artist to rise, not by his conscious volition, above his wonted +power; to portray one beloved face with the force of his emotion +rather than that of his capacity, transcending the limits of his +ordinary skill, just as a horse will put forth his last ounce of +effort in response to the magnetism of one rider, and may never again +touch the same level of achievement. + +But although the very fact that in this canvas something had lifted +Larry's art to greatness, made it for Mrs. Dixon a mystery and a +bewilderment, she had no intention of admitting defeat. After a moment +or two of silence, she cast up her eyes in an appeal to what seemed to +be a familiar near the ceiling, and said in impassioned tones: + +"Well, well, isn't that lovely?" + +The familiar apparently confirmed the opinion, for she repeated, with +a long sigh: "Wonderful altogether! I could be looking at it all day!" +She turned to Christian with profound deference. "And what might it be +intended to represent, Miss?" + +Larry, who had picked up a cue, and was knocking the balls about, gave +a short and nettled laugh. + +"Oh, Dixie!" said Christian, suffering equally with artist and critic, +"don't you see, it's a picture of me!" + +Mrs. Dixon took the blow gallantly. + +"Well, wasn't I the finished fool to forget my specs! I that couldn't +see the harp on a ha'penny without them!" + +"Don't worry, Dixie," said Larry, smacking a ball into a pocket; "I'm +not surprised you didn't recognise it--it's not half good enough." + +"Master Larry, my dear," returned Mrs. Dixon, whose social perceptions +were more acute than her artistic ones, "I'll go bail there isn't one +could take Miss Christian's picture the way you could, you that was +always her companion!" She moved away from the easel, and murmuring; +"and, please God, always will be!" she rustled away down the long +room. Mrs. Dixon, indomitable Protestant though she was, did not share +Evans' opinion of Larry. + +Larry threw down the cue and opened the high French window into the +garden at the back of the house. + +"Christian, for heaven's sake come out! I can't stand this stinking +room any longer! I feel as if all the imbecilities that I've had to +endure this afternoon were hanging in a cloud over the billiard table. +Come up to the old stone on the hill, and have some fresh air." + +He stepped out into the garden, and Christian followed him, smiling +within herself at his impatience, the absurd impatience that she loved +because it was his. It wouldn't be Larry if he suffered fools, or +anything else that he disliked, gladly or peaceably. The feeling that +she was immeasurably older than he was was always at its most +convincing when his painting was in question; even she could not quite +realise what it meant to him to have rude hand laid upon the child of +his soul. + +The garden was dank and heavy with overgrown, dying things, as +ill-cared-for gardens are wont to be at the end of September, but the +tall bush of sweet-scented verbena, that grew by the door in the south +wall, was still as green and sweet as in high summer. Christian broke +off some sprays and drew them through her hands before she put one +into the front of her shirt. + +"Here, Larry," she said, giving him one, "this will help you to forget +the billiard room!" + +Larry gave her a long look as he took it; "I don't altogether want to +forget it," he said. "I daresay good old Dixie was a useful +discipline." + +Had Christian heard Mrs. Dixon's final aspiration she would have +realised that with it Dixie had covered her failure as an art critic. + +Outside the garden was a wide belt of fir trees, and beyond and above +the trees, stretched the great hill, Cnochan an Ceoil Sidhe, the Hill +of Fairy Music, that gave its name to the house and demesne. Christian +and Larry passed through the shadowy grove, walking side by side along +the narrow track, their footsteps made noiseless by its thick covering +of pine needles. It was dark in the wood; the fir trees towered in +gloom above them; here and there in the deep of the branches there was +the stir of a wing, as a pigeon settled to its nest; from beyond the +wood came a brief, shrill bicker of starlings; all things beside these +were mute, and in the silent dusk, spirit was sensitive to spirit, and +the air was tense with the unspoken word. + +The sun was low in the west when they came out on to the open +hillside, and went on up the path, through the heather, that led to +the Druid stone beside the Tober an Sidhe, the fairies' well. The +mist, golden and green, that comes with an autumn sunset, half hid, +half transfigured the wide distances of the valley of the Broadwater; +the darkness of the woods, blended from this aspect into one, of Mount +Music and Coppinger's Court, was softened by its veils; the far hills +were transparent, as if the light had fused them to clearest brown, +and topaz, and opal glass. The hill side, above and beneath them, +glowed and smouldered with the ruby-purple of heather. + +Christian and Larry stood in the path beside the ancient stone and +looked out over the valley; the vastness and the glory of the great +prospect whelmed them like a flood, the sense of imminence that was +over them strung their nerves to vibrating and held them silent. + +"My God!" sighed Larry, at last, trembling, turning to her who had +never failed to understand him, "Christian! it's too beautiful--the +world is too big--I can't bear it alone--" He caught her arm. +"You've got to help me. Oh Christian!--" + +Christian turned her face from him. + +"I believe I could," she said in a very low voice. + +Even as she spoke, the truth broke out of her soul and ran through +her, running from her soul to his, like the flame of oil spilled upon +clear water. A voice cried a warning in her heart. "Too late!" she +answered it with triumph. + +"Darling!" said Larry, holding her close. + + * * * * * + + The sunset + + "bloomed and withered on the hill + Like any hill-flower"; + +but long those two stood by the Druid stone, knowing, perhaps, the +best moment that life could give them, facing the dying radiance with +hearts that were full of sunrise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +Doctor Francis Mangan, driving his car at something even more than his +usual high rate of speed, to the Parochial House, a mile or so from +the town of Cluhir, what time the sun's last rays were falling upon +the Druid stone on Cnochan an Ceoil Sidhe, would have been far from +pleased had he seen what the sun then saw. On their knees by the Tober +an Sidhe, Larry and Christian were looking into the tiny cave in which +the fairy water rose, and were giving each to each their plighting +word, the old word that they had known since they were children: + + "While water stands in Tubber an shee, + My heart in your hands, your heart in me," + +and, observing scrupulously the prescribed rite, were drinking a +mouthful of the water, each from the other's hand. + +Dr. Mangan would probably have said that it was all children's +nonsense, and that it was easier to break a promise than to keep it, +but it may be asserted with tolerable certainty that he would not have +been pleased. + +He was a strong and able driver, and his big car whirled up Father +Greer's neat and narrow drive, holding undeviatingly the crown of the +high-cambered track, and stopped dead at the front door of the +Parochial House. + +That Spirit of the Nation to whom allusion has occasionally been made +in these pages, was by now well accustomed to the discouragement that +she had ever received from the two young lovers whose betrothal she +had been powerless to forbid. She had fled from the benign fairy +influences of the Tober an Sidhe; but now, full of hope, she was +hovering with wide-spread wings over the Parochial House, and, as its +door was opened by Father Greer's elderly and ugly housekeeper, the +Spirit folded her wings and slipped past her, as by a familiar path, +into the priest's sitting-room. + +Father Greer was "inside," the elderly and ugly housekeeper said; +"would the Doctor sit in the parlour a minute and he'd come down?" + +The Doctor "sat" as requested, in the parlour, noting, as he had often +noted before, its arid asceticism, wondering how any man could stand +the life of a priest, respecting the power that could enable a man to +dispense with all the things that, in his opinion--which, by the way, +he pronounced "oping-en"--made life worth living. + +Father Greer came imperceptibly into the room while the Doctor was +still pondering upon the hardness of the black horsehair-covered +armchair in which he was seated. + +"Why, Doctor, this is an unexpected pleasure! I heard you were away," +the priest said, laying a limp hand in the Doctor's big fist. + +"So I was too. I was summoned to a consultation. That's what I'm come +to you about, Father. It's old Prendergast. I'm thinking he won't last +much longer." + +"D'ye mean Daniel? The Member?" + +"I do." + +Father Greer took his thin nose, with the nostrils edged with red, +between his finger and thumb, and pinched it slowly downwards several +times. + +"Well, what then?" he said at length. + +"That's the point," said the Big Doctor, looking at the priest's pale +and bumpy forehead, and trying in vain to catch his eye. "You know +that young Coppinger's name was sent up by our local Committee four +years ago, and the Party approved it." + +"I wonder were they in the right!" said Father Greer, still pinching +his nose, and looking up at the Doctor over his knuckles. + +"I don't see who we could find that'd do better," said Dr. Mangan, +apologetically. "He's well off, and he holds strong Nationalist +oping-ens; and then, of course, he's a Catholic." + +"I'm told he didn't go to Mass since he came home"; Father Greet let +the statement fall without expression. + +"Ah well, he's only just back from France. Give him a little time, and +he'll come to himself," said the Doctor, still apologetic. + +"I understand he's been painting Miss Christian Talbot-Lowry's +portrait," pursued Father Greer, with limpid simplicity. "I'm told +she's as pretty a young girl as there is in this neighbourhood." + +Whether this slight prod of the mahout's _ankus_ was, or was not, +intentional, it is not easy to say, but it took instant effect upon +the Big Doctor. + +"There are other pretty young girls in the neighbourhood besides +Christian Lowry," he said sharply. "And maybe prettier! I don't think +it would give us much trouble to find one that Larry Coppinger would +be well satisfied with, and one that's in the bosom of the Church, +too!" + +"I greatly deplore mixed marriages," said Father Greer; permitting his +eyes to meet those of Dr. Mangan. "I had hoped that in the case of +this young man beneficial influences might have been brought to +bear--" + +"If you want to put a spoke in that wheel," interrupted the Doctor +with eagerness, "you'll support his nomination. I'll undertake to say +there won't be much talk of mixed marriages then!" + +Father Greer's small eyes again rested for a second on the Doctor's +broad face, with its strong, overhanging brows and heavy under-jaw, +and drew his own conclusions from the confident smile that showed the +white teeth under the drooping, black moustache that had still +scarcely a grey hair in it. + +"I was thinking that might be what he was after!" thought Father +Greer. "Well, he's a good warrant to play his hand well, and more +unsuitable things have occurred before now. Yet, didn't I hear +something--!" Even in thought Father Greer observed a studied +mildness and moderation, and there were contingencies which might +remain unformulated until they crystallised into certainty. + +"I'll think it over, Doctor," he said. "I'm inclined to your view, of +the case, and I might be disposed to advocate the candidature of your +nominee. But,"--here Father Greer sniffed several times, indicating +that a humorous aspect of the case had occurred to him, "what will we +do if he turns 'sour-face,' as they say, on us?" + +This euphuism, which had been adopted by some of the more extreme of +the Nationalist party to indicate members of the opposing communion, +was received by Dr. Mangan as an apt and entertaining quotation on the +part of his clergyman. + +"No fear, no fear!" he said, laughing jovially, "but if you'll allow +me to say so, I think a good deal depends on this business going +through." + +The Spirit of the Nation smiled also; it was evident to her that these +ministers of hers were conscientiously intent on doing her pleasure, +and, leaving them with confidence, she spread her wide wings and +followed the broad stream of the river down the valley in the +direction of Mount Music. + +Dr. Mangan drove home as swiftly and capably as was his wont. It had +been fair-day in Cluhir, and the people from the country were slowly +and reluctantly forsaking the enjoyments of the town. Large women +piled voluminously on small carts, each with a conducting little boy +and a labouring little donkey somewhere beneath her; men in decent +blue cloth garments, whose innate respectability must have suffered +acutely from the erratic conduct of the limbs inside them; wandering +knots of cattle, remotely attended by the wearers of blue cloth +aforesaid; horses carting themselves and their owners home, with +entire self-control and good sense; and, anchored in the tide of +traffic, the ubiquitous beggar-women, their filthy hands proffering +matches, green apples, bootlaces, their strident tongues mastering the +noises of the street, their rapacious, humorous eyes observant of all +things. All these did Dr. Mangan encounter and circumvent, frustrating +their apparent determination to commit suicide by those diverse +methods of abuse, cajolery, and, on the part of the car, mechanical +activity, that formed an important part of the necessary equipment of +an Irish motorist of the earlier time. Nevertheless, the more intimate +portion of his brain was deeply engaged in those labyrinths of minor +provincial intrigue in which so many able intellects spend themselves, +for want of wider opportunity. + +Mrs. Mangan was in the kitchen, where, indeed, she was not +infrequently to be found, when the Doctor came in by the back-door +from the yard. + +"I want you, Annie," he said, shouldering his enormous bulk along the +narrow passage, and treading heavily on the cat, who, her mystic +meditations thus painfully interrupted, vanished in darkness, uttering +the baleful cry of her kind, that is so inherently opposed to the +blended forgiveness and apology that give poignancy to a dog's +reproach for a similar injury. + +"Look here, Annie. Before I forget it, I want you to take the car on +Saturday--I'll want it myself to-morrow--and call upon Miss Coppinger. +Barty can drive you. I got a wire awhile ago, and I have to go on the +nine o'clock to-night to Broadhaven. It's that unfortunate Prendergast +the Member. There's nothing can be done for the poor fellow, but +whether or no, I must go." + +"They'll not be satisfied till they have you dead, too, dragging at +you!" protested Mrs. Mangan. "What nonsense they have, and you there +only this morning! On earth, what can you do more for him?" + +"They think more of me, my dear, than you do!" said the Doctor, +cheerfully. "Be listening, now, to what I'm saying. You're to be as +civil as be damned to old Frederica, and tell Barty he's to fix up +with Larry to come here--what day is this to-day is? Thursday?--Tell +him I'll be in on Sunday afternoon, and I want to talk to him on very +special business. Now, will you remember that?" + +He repeated his commands, as people will who have learnt, as most +Doctors must learn, the fallibility of the human memory and its +infinite powers of invention and substitution. + +Mrs. Mangan listened obediently and promised attention. Although in +matters to which she attached slight importance, such as the +proportions of a prescription, her memory was liable to betray her, in +other affairs, it had the cast-iron accuracy of the peasant, and +without having been privileged with the Doctor's full confidence, she +was probably deeper in it than he was aware. + +While still these intentions with regard to young Mr. St. Lawrence +Coppinger were whirling in the air above him, as a lasso swirls and +circles before it secures its victim, that young man was, it is no +exaggeration to say, staggering home under the weight of his +happiness. After the sacrament at the Tober an Sidhe he and Christian +had gone from the hill, hand in hand, like two children. In silence +they had gone through the dark wood, and almost in silence had made +their mutual farewells in the fragrant shadow of the pines. + +When the soul is tuned to its highest it cannot find an interpreter. +The lips can utter only broken sounds, pathetically inadequate to +express emotions that may, in some future sphere, make themselves +known in terms other than are permitted to us. There is an inner +radiance that is beyond thought, that might conceivably utter itself +in music or in colour, but that can no more be translated into words +than can the radiance of the mid-day sun be more than indicated by +earthly painters with earthly pigments. + +So it was with Larry and Christian. It chances now and then on this +old, and prosaic, and often tearful earth that some kindly spirit +leaves the door of Paradise a little open, and two happy +people--though sometimes it is only one--are caught inside for a time, +and come out, as Larry did, bewildered, dazzled, wandering back to +earth, he scarcely knew how, saying, drunkenly, to himself: + +"Good Lord! She is so bright to-night!" as the blackbird said, who was +"blowing his bugle to one far bright star." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +Old, prosaic, and often tearful, though this earth may be, few are +anxious to hasten their departure from it, and Daniel Prendergast, +Esq., M.P., abetted by the ministrations of that able consultant, Dr. +Mangan, "hung on," as his friends put it, with unexpected tenacity to +his share of the world. And, so far reaching are the etheric cords +that are said to bind us all together, Mr. Prendergast's grip of his +sorry and suffering life bestowed upon Larry and Christian three days +to be spent within the confines of Paradise. + +This may seem an over-statement when it is recorded that their next +meeting was at 7 a.m. at a cubbing meet of the hounds, which occurred +on the morning following on Larry's discovery that the _entree_ +to Paradise had been his for the asking; it is, however, no more than +the truth. Christian had exacted a promise from him that no word was +to be said to any other of the high contracting parties until Monday, +and, as they rode in at the Castle Ire gates, the matter was still +under debate. + +"Three days we must have, just three, with this secret hidden between +us like a pearl in an oyster-shell! Larry, you know _I_ can keep +a secret!" + +"And you think I can't!" said Larry, affronted. + +"I don't think, I know it! But you must try! Don't forget I've got to +week-end at the--" she named people who lived in the next county. +"No one shall be told until I come home!" + +This was when they were riding to the meet. Larry had brought over +Joker, the bay horse, for her and he was himself riding a small grey +four-year-old mare, on whose education as a hunter he was entering. It +was one of those gorgeous mornings of late September, when everything +is intense in colour and in sentiment. A light white frost was +melting, in the first rays of the sun, to a silver dew, that twinkled +on grass and bush and twig. Now and then a beech leaf, prematurely +gold, came spinning down in the still air; from high places of heaven +a tiny gabble of music, cold, and shrill, and sweet, told of the songs +of the larks at those heavenly gates within which Larry's and +Christian's spirits were dwelling. + +"Yes!" Christian repeated, as they rode tranquilly along on the grass +beside one of the long Castle Ire avenues, "it shall remain a secret +as long as possible, unprofaned by the vulgar! It's like this morning; +the dew's on it still. Larry, you've got to try!" + +"Got to try, have I?" said Larry, beaming at her fatuously. + +The horses were sidling close to one another after the manner of +stable companions; Larry put his hand on the bay horse's withers and +gazed into Christian's laughing eyes, while the blue of the southern +Irish sky uttered its strong, splendid note of colour behind the pale +rose of her face, and the ineffable freshness of the morning thrilled +in him. + +"If you look at me like that in general society," he declared, "I +shall either give it away on the spot--or burst! Look here, here's the +measured-mile gallop; I'll race you to the hall door! If I get in +first, I shall tell everyone we're engaged!" + +"Done!" said Christian, instantly shortening her reins; "but I back +Joker!" + +She touched Joker with her heel and the big horse sprang, at the hint, +into a gallop. Quickly as he started, Rayleen, the grey mare (whose +name, being interpreted, is Little Star), being ever concentrated for +instant effort, as is the manner of small and well-bred +four-year-olds, was up to his shoulder in a couple of bounds, even in +the flame of her youth and enthusiasm, she drove ahead of Joker's +ordered strides, and led him for awhile. Larry's laugh of triumph, +that the wind tossed back to her, was not needed to rouse Christian to +emulation. Any hint of a race, any touch of a contest, appealed to her +as instantly as to Rayleen, and she was racing for that secret that +was like a pearl. Sitting very still she touched Joker again with her +heel and spoke to him. There was in her the magnetism that can fire a +horse to his best, by some mystery, compound of sympathy and +stimulation, that has no outward manifestation. Joker's great +shoulders worked under her as he lengthened and quickened his +beautiful, rhythmic stride. The wind of the pace whistled in her ears +and snatched at her hair. She crammed her hat over her forehead, +laughing with the joy of battle. She was level with Larry now. Now she +was passing him, and the little grey strove in vain to hold her place. +Gallant as she was, what could she do against a raking, trained +galloper, well over sixteen hands, and nearly thoroughbred? + +The smooth mile of shining grass was annihilated, wiped out in a few +whirling minutes. Joker had but just fairly settled down to go when +the end of the race was at hand. Had he been a shade less of a +gentleman than he was, Christian, and the snaffle in which she was +riding him, would hardly have stopped him, as did their joint efforts, +on the gravel in front of the goal that Larry had given her. + +Hunts come, and hunts go, and are forgotten. Horses, the best and +dearest of them, fade, in some degree, from remembrance; where are the +snows of yester year, and where the great gallops that we rode when we +were young? But here and there something defies the mists of memory, +and remains, bright and imperishable as a diamond. I believe that for +Christian that mile of sun and wind and speed and flight, with her +lover thundering at her heels, will remain ever vivid, one of the +moments that are of the incalculable bounty of Chance; moments that +earth can never equal, nor Heaven better. + +The hounds and staff were waiting at the farther end of the long front +of Castle Ire, when Larry and Christian made their somewhat +sensational entrance upon the scene. + +"Joker wins, by a length and a half," said Bill Kirby, judicially, +"and a very pretty race. I never saw a prettier, on any sands, on any +jackasses, on any Bank Holiday! I suppose this is how people always +fetch up at meets in France? It's not come in in this benighted +country yet." + +"His fault!" said Christian, breathless and glowing. "He dar'd me! +Where are you going to draw?" + +"The ash-pit and the fowl-houses," replied Bill, picking up his reins. +"Then the backstairs, and the kitchenmaid's bedroom. Judith and Mrs. +Brady say he's taking all the fowl, and they're going to lay poison--I +don't mean the fowl--" + +"Isn't he bright this morning?" said Judith, looking down upon the +party from an upper window, effectively arrayed in one of those lacy +and lazy garments that invite, while they repudiate, society. "No, I'm +not coming out. Too early for me. Come in and eat something--breakfast +or lunch, anything--when you've done enough." + +The hounds moved on and were soon busy in the screens of glossy laurel +round the house. Other riders arrived. A fox was found, if not in the +kitchenmaid's bedroom in some spot of almost equal intimacy, and the +Hunt surged in and through yards, and haggards, outhouses, and +gardens, the hounds over-running all the complicated surroundings of +an Irish country-house, while every grade of domestic, forsaking his +or her lawful occupation, joined in the chase. + +Christian had betaken herself to a point on the avenue remote from the +fray. A run, she told herself, would have tranquillised her, and made +things seem more normal, but there was no prospect of one. "I'll wait +till this rat-hunt is over," she thought, letting Joker stroll across +the park towards a little lake, shining amidst bracken and bushes, a +jewel dropped from heaven. A couple of stiff-necked swans floated in +motionless trance upon it; black water-hens flapped in flashing, +splashing flight to safety as Christian came near; a string of +patchwork coloured mandarin-ducks propelled themselves in jerks +towards her, confident that any human being meant food. Two gigantic +turquoise dragon-flies rose, with a dry crackle of talc-like wings, +from a dead log under Joker's feet. One of them swung round the +horse's head, and lit on his shaven neck. It brooded there, apparently +unperceptive of the difference of this resting place from the one that +it had abandoned; its dull globes of eyes looked as if sight was the +last purpose for which they were intended. Joker stretched his long +neck to nibble a willow twig, and the blue mystery, rising, remained +poised over him for another moment of meditation, before it sailed +away, sideways, on its own obscure occasions. + +Christian sat in the sunshine, and thought about Larry, and wondered. +She knew now that what she felt for him was no new thing. It had been +with her always, not merely since the painting of her portrait, but +always, unacknowledged yet implicit, ever since that first day when he +had rescued her from Richard. Her intensely criticising, analytic +brain refused to surrender to vague emotion. She was resolved to +understand herself, to rationalise her overthrow. It was the +difference, for which that half-hour of sunset was responsible, in the +degree of what she felt, that bewildered her. Yesterday, she told +herself, it was a deep, but well-controlled and respectable little +stream. To-day it was a flood. "I must keep my feet," she thought; "I +must not be swept away!" The thought of him was sometimes +overwhelming, like the fire of a summer noon; sometimes meditative, +and wound about with memories, like twilight, and the song of the +thrush; even at its least, it had been the glow that lives behind the +northern horizon in midsummer, witnessing to the hidden glory, during +darkness, or the wistful glimmer of stars. Now, while the sun went +higher, and all the hum of life rose, and the cries of the +water-birds, the buzz of insects over the bright lake, became more +insistent, and the blue and lovely morning spread and strengthened +round her, criticism and analysis failed. She could only think of him, +helplessly, saying to herself what she had once heard a peasant woman +say: "My heart'd open when I thinks of him." + +Across the park came repeated notes from the horn, the baying of +hounds, and the screams that celebrate with orthodox excitement the +death of a fox. The rat-hunt was over. Joker lifted his spare, +aristocratic head from the grass, and listened, with a wisp of dewy +green stuff in his mouth. Christian looked at her watch. It was early +still, not eight o'clock. A grey horse and its rider came forth from +the dark grove of laurels. Larry was looking for her. She sighed; she +did not know why. She thought of the old Mendelssohn open-air +part-song: + + "The talk of the lovers in silence dies, + They weep, yet they know not why tears fill their eyes." + +The old, absurd words, that she had so often laughed at. She laughed +again, but at herself, and sat still, watching the grey mare coming +lightly over the sunny grass to her. + +"They got him!" Larry shouted, as he came near. "The brute wouldn't +run for 'em! Too full of hen, I suppose! They're going on now to the +gorse in the high paddock. Why did you come away here?" + +"Because I'm illogical. I like hunting, and I hate catching what I +hunt. Besides, I wanted to think." + +"Rotten habit," said Larry. "I won't have you changing your mind!" + +Christian looked at him, and sighed again. He was on her right, and +she took her hunting-crop in her left hand, with the reins, and +stretched out her right hand to him. He caught it, and kissed her +slender wrist above the glove. There came back to Christian, with a +rush, the remembrance of the May morning at the kennels when he had +kissed her wrist. That had been the left wrist. The kiss had meant +more to her than it had to him. Now, as she met his eyes she knew that +she and he stood on level ground. + +Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel? Those even, who pin it down, and +set it up in a glass case in the cause of science and for the +edification of an inquisitive public, are not wholly to be commended, +praiseworthy though their intentions may be. Let a rule of silence, +therefore be observed, as far as may be. What this boy and girl said +to each other, is their secret, not ours. + +The gorse in the high paddock held a fox; several, in fact, a lady +having reared a fine young family there without any anxieties as to +their support, thanks to the votive offerings of crows and rabbits, +obsequiously laid on her doorstep, by her best friend, and her most +implacable enemy, Mr. William Kirby, M.F.H. In recognition, no doubt, +of these attentions, the lady in question permitted one of her sons to +afford a little harmless pleasure to her benefactor, and this, having +included a lively gallop of some three miles, ceased in a plantation +where was the place of safety that had been indicated to the beginner, +and ceased appositely, at an hour that made a late breakfast at Castle +Ire a matter obvious, even imperative, for those who were not prepared +to await, in patient starvation, that very inferior repast, an early +lunch. + +Young Mrs. Kirby had not lost, with matrimony, the habit of having her +own way. + +"No, Christian, you're not going home. You haven't seen Baby, and he +really looks _rather_ sweet in his new--" (a negligible matter, +whatever the attire the formulae being unvaried)--"and, besides," +continued young Mrs. Kirby, with decision, "I want to talk to you." + +Being talked to by Judith was an adequate modern equivalent for an +interview with the "Jailer's Daughter," as a method of obtaining +information. + +Christian trembled for the secret of the pearl. + +"Bill tells me," began Judith, after the late breakfast had been +disposed of, settling herself luxuriously in an armchair in the round +tower-room which she had made her own sitting-room and lighting a +cigarette, "that our tenants--I mean Papa's people--are getting rather +nasty. Of course, there was that disgraceful business when your mare +was killed but I don't mean that--Bill thinks old Fairfax was right in +advising Papa to do nothing about that--but about this archaic +nonsense of feudal feeling and not selling the property. Of course +he's bound to lose by the sale, but the longer he waits the worse it +gets." + +"I don't think it's only feudal feeling--he says he can't afford to +sell," began Christian. + +"Oh, I know all that, my dear," interrupted Judith; "'the infernal +mortgagees, and the damned charges, and that blackguard rebel, young +Mangan, who cut the ground from under his feet,' and so on. I've heard +it all from Papa, exactly five thousand times. But the point is that +there was a meeting at Pribawn, with the priest in the chair, and +there were furious speeches, and they talked of boycotting Papa, and +some steps _ought_ to be taken. It's an intolerable nuisance +being boycotted, if it's nothing else, and most expensive. I was with +the O'Donnells that time when they were boycotted--up at five every +morning to milk the cows and light the kitchen fire, and having to get +every earthly thing by post from London!" + +"I'll take as many steps as you like," said Christian, "if you'll only +tell me where to take them." + +Judith took her cigarette out of her mouth, and blew a ring of smoke, +regarding her younger sister the while with a shrewd and wary blue +eye. + +"I've often said to you, my dear child," she began, in a voice that +seemed intended to usher in a change of subject, "that if you _won't_ +take an interest in men, _they_ won't take an interest; in you." + +"Then why repeat the statement?" said Christian, wondering what Judith +was working up to, and girding herself for battle; "true and beautiful +though it is!" + +"Because, my dear--and I may say I speak as one having authority and +not as the scribes--in _my_ opinion, and judging by what I +perceived with about a quarter of one eye at breakfast, you have only +to hold up your little finger, in a friendly and encouraging manner, +and our young friend and relative, Mr. Coppinger, will--I admit I +don't quite know what people do with little fingers in these cases, +something affectionate, no doubt!" + +"I thought your authority would have extended to little fingers!" +broke in Christian, sparring for wind, and wishing she were not facing +the window; "in any case, I fail to see what mine, in this instance, +has to say to our being boycotted?" + +"My dear girl," said Judith, leaning forward, and speaking with +solemnity, "the priests won't want to fall foul of anyone with as much +money as Larry!" + +Christian was silent; she had not anticipated quite so direct an +intervention in her personal affairs as was now being discovered, and +she felt that her pearl was melting in the fierce solvent of Judith's +interest and curiosity. + +"I know it's a bore about his religion, and his politics are +_more_ than shaky, but you know, in a way, it's rather lucky, in +view of the mess Papa's got everything into, to have someone on that +side," went on Judith, who was far too practical to be influenced by +that malign Spirit of the Nation who had so persistently endeavoured +to establish herself as one of the family at Mount Music. "All I'm +afraid of is that Papa may begin to beat the Protestant drum and wave +the Union Jack! Such nonsense! The main thing is that Larry himself is +quite all right!" + +"I'm sure he would be gratified by your approval!" Judith's patronage +was somewhat galling; Judith, who was quite pleased with Bill +Kirby!--Good, excellent Bill, but still! Christian's colour betrayed +her, and she knew it, and knowing also the remorseless cross-examination +that the betrayal would immediately provoke, she decided to anticipate +it. + +"As a matter of fact," she went on, "he--we--" she hated the crudity +of the statement. + +"You're engaged!" swooped Judith, with the speed of a hawk. "Excellent +girl!" + +Christian found the commendation offensive. + +"I assure you it's quite without either political or religious bias!" +she said defiantly. She had failed to keep her secret, but she went +down with her flags flying. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +Barty Mangan fulfilled his father's behests, and on Saturday, he drove +his mother to Coppinger's Court. + +He drove a motor well; not brilliantly, like Larry, because Barty did +nothing brilliantly, but capably and gently, with consideration for +donkey-carts, with respect for horses, with kindness towards +pedestrians, even without animosity towards cur-dogs. The surprising +aspect of the fact was that he should be able, in any degree, to +handle a car, the control of energy being an effort foreign to his +nature. What in his mother was laziness, was with him transmuted to +languor; his father's vigour and decision became in Barty a sort of +tepid obstinacy, and the Doctor's fierce and fighting allegiance to +his Church reappeared in his son as a peevish conscientiousness, that +had provoked a friend of the family to say: "Barty's a dam' bad +solicitor! He'll take up no case but what pleases him, and he'll touch +nothing if he thinks he'll make money out of it!" + +"Ah! He was always a fool for himself!" replied, heartily, Barty's +great-aunt, Mrs. Cantwell, to whom the comment had been offered. + +One aspect of the practical affairs of life, and one only, had power +to rouse Barty from the dreamy passivity which had excited Great-Aunt +Cantwell's contempt. Where Ireland and Irish politics came into +question, some deep spring of sentiment and enthusiasm in him was +touched, and all the force that he was capable of became manifest. All +the strength and tenacity that were in him were concentrated in the +cause of Nationalism; Ireland was his religion, and he felt himself to +be one of her priesthood. + +There are some gentle natures, with deep affections, but without much +brain-power in whom an idea, a mental attitude, and especially a +personal liking or disliking, is very easily implanted; yet, easily as +it is introduced, once it has taken hold it can never be dislodged. +The intellect has not energy enough for reconstruction; it accepts too +readily, and, once saturated, the stain is indelible, because there is +no power of growth. + +Behold, then, Barty, gentle and obstinate, timid and an enthusiast, +loving, yet implacable, seated in Larry's studio, regarding with +submissive adoration the being compact of the antithesis of his +qualities, and ready, for that being's sake, to make any sacrifice +save that of renouncing him. + +The being in question, wholly and feverishly absorbed in his own +affairs of the heart, while bound by his oath to say nothing about +them, brought himself with difficulty to attend to the retrospect of +financial operations, hitherto postponed, but now insisted upon, by +his man of business. + +"Oh, first-rate, old chap--quite all right--good business!--" With +these, and similar interjections, did the employer ratify and approve +of his agent's transactions. Barty's legal training abetted his +conscientiousness, and in his mild and monotonous brogue he laid +before Larry a statement of his money matters that was as unsparing in +detail as it was accurate. + +"So now you see," he concluded, "I didn't act without careful +consideration, and I consulted me fawther, besides others of +experience in such matters. I believe there are people who are saying +we sold too cheap to the tenants. But, on the other hand, the money's +good and safe now; you have a certain and secure income, and you're in +a very favourable position in the eyes of the people." + +Larry pulled himself from reverie to ejaculate further general +approval; then he rose from the table, upon which Barty's books had +been displayed, and drawing forward an easel on which was a framed +canvas covered by some vivid oriental drapery, he arranged it +carefully with regard to the light. Then he caught away the drapery, +stepping back, quickly, from the easel. + +"What do you think of that, Barty?" + +Barty, who was short-sighted, stood up and adjusted his eye-glasses, +while he endeavoured to readjust his ideas, and to abandon the realms +of business for those of art. + +"But you know, Larry," he apologised, "I know nothing about paintings. +You wouldn't know what tomfoolery I mightn't--" The apology broke +off abruptly. + +"Oh, God!" he muttered, feeling, in the shock of meeting her eyes, as +if a sudden wind had swept his mind bare of business, of Larry, of all +things save Christian, "it's herself!" + +His sallow face had turned a dull red. He moved back a step or two, +and then went forward again. The easel was low, and Barty was very +tall; he went on his knees, and gazed, speechless. + +Thus might a devout Russian have greeted a lost icon, and worshipped, +silently, a re-found saint. Larry, equally absorbed, as any painter +will understand, in the contemplation of his work, took no heed of its +effect upon Barty. + +"By Jove!" he murmured, drawing a big breath, "I wonder if I did it! I +don't feel as if I had--something outside me--" He stopped; he felt +as if Christian herself were there; he felt as if her arms were round +him, his head upon her bosom. He was giddy with emotion. Scarcely +knowing what he did he walked across the room, and stared out of the +window, looking across his own woods to the woods of Mount Music. + +That morning he had said good-bye to her for three long days. She had +met him at the old stepping stones across the Ownashee, and she had +made him renew his promise of silence until her return; he was sorry +he couldn't tell old Barty; but no matter, nothing mattered, except +the marvel that she was his. He whispered adoration to her, breathing +her name again and again, crowning it, as with a wreath, with those +old, familiar adjectives that had so lately become intense with new +meaning for him; he forgot Barty, forgot even her portrait, as he +thought of herself. + +Barty came over to him; the two young men, with their common secret, +suspected by neither, a secret that for one was a living ecstasy, and +for the other an impossible ideal, stood silent, full of their own +thoughts. Barty spoke first. + +"It's a wonder to me! I didn't think you could paint like that, Larry! +I didn't think anyone could!" + +"Well, no more I can, really. This was a sort of a miracle and it +painted itself." + +The same impulse moved them both, and they returned to the easel on +which was the picture, but with a quick movement Larry flung the +drapery over the frame again and hid the picture. + +"Didn't you say you had a message for me from your father?" + +Barty accepted the change of subject with his accustomed resignation +to Larry's moods. + +"I have. He said he'd be at home to-morrow afternoon--that's +Sunday--and he wanted to see you on very special business." + +"Do you know what about?" Larry asked, without interest, while he +arranged the many-coloured silken drapery in effective folds over the +picture. + +"I believe old Prendergast's dying." + +Barty hesitated; then, remembering that his father had not enjoined +secrecy, he rushed into his subject. "Larry, I believe the chance +we've been waiting for is come--or as good as come!" + +"Do you mean that it's Prendergast the Member who's dying? Do you mean +my getting into Parliament?" + +Larry swung round on Barty, and fired the questions at him, quick as +shots from a revolver. + +The colour rose again in Barty's face. His dark, shortsighted eyes, +that were set on Larry, had a sudden glow in them. He nodded. + +"He's likely dead by now! Oh Larry!" he cried, panting in his +eagerness. "May be the chance has come at last! I believe you might be +the man Ireland wants! I believe you might take Parnell's place! Me +fawther says you're certain to be nominated, and there's no +opposition, of course. Anyhow, if there were, itself, you'd go in +flying, just the same! You're the man we're all waiting for! Larry, +old cock! The day will come when I'll be bragging that I was the one +first gave you the notion to go into politics!" + +Larry was gazing at his man of business, whose aspect, it may be +conceded, was at this moment singularly at variance with the usual +conception of such a functionary. The man of business gazed back at +him, the glow intensifying behind his eye-glasses and gathering energy +from the answering gleam in Larry's eyes. + +"The Bloody Wars!" uttered Larry, slowly and quite irrelevantly, and +with great emphasis. "By all the crosses in a yard of check! Let me +hold on to something and think! This is a game and a half! I must +think furiously!" + +"Do not!" exclaimed Barty; "don't think at all! Don't be wasting time +like that! No man ever had a greater chance than this! Lep at it, +Larry, old lad! Give me the word I want, and I'll wire the Doctor +to-night--a message he'll understand, and no one else. Oh Larry!" he +implored, "don't cry off now! You've pots of money; you can do any +damn thing you like! If you refuse this chance now you'll only regret +it the once, and that'll be all your life!" + +Then did that mysterious and mighty agency, the warp that a mind has +received in childhood, come to reinforce the enthusiasms and ambitions +of youth, and urge Larry to assent. That other and nobler Spirit of +the Nation woke, and the passionate, irreconcilable voice, that had +first spoken to him when he was a little boy, woke and uttered itself +again, shouting to him its wild summons at a moment when the tide of +life was running fiercest in him, when every emotion was at highest +pressure and calling for great adventure. + +"All right, Barty, my son, I'm for it!" said Larry, with the +assumption of outward calm, when heart and pulses are pounding, that +has been claimed as one of the assets of a public school education, +and is, even without that advantage, the birthright of such as young +Mr. Coppinger. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +Larry bicycled up to the white chapel on the hill, to Second Mass, on +the following morning. He rode fast through the converging groups of +people, on foot, on outside cars, in carts, on horseback. It was four +years since he had last attended a service there, and to many of the +assembled congregation he had become a stranger. None the less there +was no hesitation in any man's mind in identifying him; these were +people who knew a gentleman when they saw one, and the young owner of +Coppinger's Court was the only gentleman ever to be seen at the white +chapel on the hill. + +Therefore it was that Larry's right hand was seldom on his handle-bar, +as he skimmed through the people, decent and dark-dressed in their +Sunday best, who saluted with a long-established friendship and +respect this solitary representative of their traditional enemies, the +landlords. + +There cannot be in the world a people more unfailingly church-going +than those sons and daughters of Rome who are bred in Southern +Ireland. Larry looked down, from his pew in the gallery, at the close +ranks of kneeling figures, and thought with compunction how long it +was since he had been in a church, and thanked God that he had come +home to his own people, and that their religion was his. He followed +the words of the service with a new realisation of their ancient +beauty. He trembled with an unfamiliar emotion, as, in the charged +silence of the crowded chapel, the bell tinkled and the censer +clashed, sounds that have in them at such moments a heart-shaking +power, magnetic, mystical. He heard nothing of the sermon; in his +eager mind two thoughts raced side by side, now one, now the other, +leading. These two marvels that had befallen. That Christian should +love him; this had the mastery, irradiating all; but with the vivid +sense of fellowship and communion that the service brought the other +thought, the old dream that was coming true of standing for these +people, of making their interests his, their welfare his care, moved +him profoundly. + +Outside in the chapel yard, after the service, the congregation was in +no hurry to disperse. Larry looked about him, and found many friendly +eyes set on him. Larry, too, had a friendly heart, and he bethought +him that, as a future M.P., he should lose no opportunity of +intercourse with his constituents. He recognised the solid presence of +John Herlihy, an elderly farmer who had been one of the largest of his +own late tenants, and he went across the yard to where he stood and +shook hands with him. + +"Fine day, John! Good and hot for the harvest! Got your threshing done +yet?" + +"'Tis very warm, sir," answered John Herlihy, correcting, as is +invariable, Larry's employment of the vulgar adjective "hot"; "very +warm entirely, and sure I have my corn threshed this ten days, the +same as yourself!" + +"Nothing like taking time by the fetlock, is there, John!" chaffed +Larry (who, until that moment, had been unaware that he possessed any +corn); "it's a good harvest all round, isn't it?" + +"Well, pretty fair, thank God!" + +"And the country's quiet?" + +"Never better, sir, never better!" responded John Herlihy, weightily; +but something in his cool eyes, grey and wise as a parrot's, impelled +Larry, in his new-born sense of responsibility, to further +questioning. + +Mr. John Herlihy was a man of the order to whom the label +"respectable" inevitably attaches itself (that adjective which acts as +a touch-stone in the definition of class, and is a compliment up to a +certain point, an offence higher up the scale); one of those sound and +sensible and thrifty farmers who are the strength of Ireland, and are +as the stones of a break-water, over which the storm-froth of the +waters of politics sweeps unheeded. + +"Well," Larry went on, "it wasn't a very nice way that those Carmodys +up at Derrylugga treated Miss Christian Talbot-Lowry the other day! +Killing her mare under her, the cowardly blackguards!" + +The grey parrot eyes scanned Larry, summing him up, determining how +far he might be trusted, deciding that an oblique approach might be +most advisable. + +"Major Lowry's a fine gentleman," said John Herlihy, largely; "a fine, +easy, _grauver_ man! I declare I was sorry to me heart when he +gave up the hounds! If it was to be only a scold or a curse from him, +ye'd rather it, and to have he be goin' through the country!" + +"Then what have people against him? Good God!" cried Larry, hotly. +"It's too easy he is! _I_ wouldn't have let those devils off as +easy as he did!" + +"I heard the Priest and a few more, was above at Mount Music ere +yesterday," said John Herlihy, in a slightly lowered voice, "about the +sale of the property they were, I b'lieve. You done well, Master +Larry, you got quit o' the whole kit of us!" + +Having thus shelved the controversial subject, Mr. Herlihy, laughing +heartily at his own jest, moved towards his horse and car, that were +hitched to the chapel gate, and let down the upturned side of the car. + +"Come! Get up, woman! Get up!" he called to his wife, a prosperous +lady, in a massive, blue, hooded cloak, who had been standing by the +gate, patiently waiting his pleasure; "don't be delaying me this way!" + +He winked at Larry, scrambling on to the car. + +"What _tashpy_ he has!" remarked Mrs. Herlihy, benignantly, as +Larry shook hands with her. + +"Ah, you spoil him, Mrs. Herlihy! You should dock his oats!" said +Larry, laughing into her jolly, round, red face, that was glistening +with heat under the heavy cloth hood. "It's a grand hot day, isn't +it?" + +"'Tis very warm, sir, indeed," corrected Mrs. Herlihy, as she mounted +the car with an agility as competent, and as unexpected, as that of a +trespassing cow confronted with a stone-faced bank. + +Larry went home, and continued a letter to Christian that he had begun +over night. He told her of Barty's visit, and of all that it was +likely to involve. He said that he was very lonely, and he believed +she had been gone a year. Even Aunt Freddy had bolted off to Dublin, +on urgent private affairs, which meant the dentist, as usual. He would +go over to see Cousin Dick, only that he was absolutely bound to go +into Cluhir. At this point he entered anew upon the subject of his +political future, and what it meant to him. Of the fun he would have +canvassing the electors. Christian would have to come round with him, +and in very obdurate cases there was always the classical method of +the Duchess of Devonshire to be resorted to! Already, he said, he was +frightfully interested in the whole show, and he meant--several pages +were devoted by Larry to his intentions. + +Christian, far away in the County Limerick, received the letter with +her early cup of tea, and, as she read it, felt her soul disquieted +within her. The conjunction of the stars of Love and Politics +presaged, she felt, disaster--as if the question of religion had not +been complicating enough! Even had her gift of envisaging a situation +by the light of reason failed her, that spiritual aneroid, which, +sensitive to soul-pressure, warned her intuitively of coming joy or +sorrow, ill luck or good fortune, had fallen from set fair to stormy. +She had gone to sleep with sunshine in her heart; she awoke in clouds, +dark and threatening. She read Larry's letter, and knew that the +foreboding would come true. + +It is probable that no human being was ever less the prey of +intuitions or presentiments than was young Mr. Coppinger, as he +bicycled lightly into Cluhir along the solitary steam-rolled road of +the district, a typical effort of Irish civilisation, initiated by Dr. +Mangan, that had proposed to link Cluhir with the outer world, but had +died, like a worn-out tramp, at the end of a few faltering miles, on +the steps of the work-house hospital at Riverstown. The road ran along +the bank of the great river, with nothing save a low fence and a +footpath between it and the water. The river was still and gleaming. +Masses of dove-coloured cloud, with touches of silver-saffron, where +their lining showed through, draped the wide sky, in over-lapping +folds. The planes of distance up the broad valley were graduated in +tone by a succession of screens of luminous vapour that parcelled out +the landscape, taking away all colour save that bestowed by the +transparent golden grey of the mist. The roofs of Cluhir made a dark +profile in the middle distance, the lower part of the houses hidden in +the steaming mist, and the beautiful outline of the twin crests of +Carrigaholt was like a golden shadow in the sky above them. The spire +and the tower of the two churches of Cluhir, rose on either side of +the pale radiance of the river, with the slender arch of the bridge +joining them, as if to show in allegory their inherent oneness, their +joint access to the water of life. Religion counted for but little +with Larry in those days, yet as the wonder of beauty sank into his +soul, that was ever thirsty for beauty, the thought of what it would +mean for Ireland if the symbol of the linking bridge had its +counterpart in reality sprang into his eager mind. Then he thought of +himself and Christian, and knew that religion could never come between +him and her, and, as the close-followed thought of what these last +days had brought, rose in his mind, the wonder of it overwhelmed him. +He told himself that the only possible explanation of her caring for +such as he, was that Narcissus-like, she had seen her own image +reflected in his heart, and had fallen in love with it. The fancy +attracted him; he rode on, his mind set on a sonnet that should fitly +enshrine the thought, and politics and religion, symbols and ideals, +faded, as the stars go out when the sun comes. + +For the last couple of miles before Cluhir was reached the road and +the river ran their parallel course in a line that was nearly direct, +and, from a long way off, Larry was aware of the figure of a man and +woman and a dog, preceding him towards the town. He noted presently +that the dog had passed from view, and then he saw the man and the +woman hurry across the road and pass through the gateway of a field. +He was soon level with the gate. There was a little knot of people +just within the field, and in the moment of perceiving that the woman +was Tishy Mangan, he also saw that a fierce fight was in progress +between two dogs. + +"Oh, stop them, stop them!" Tishy was screaming. "That's my father's +dog, and he'll be killed!" + +She belaboured the dogs, futilely, with her parasol. + +The man who was with her, a tall and elaborately well-dressed young +gentleman with a red moustache, confined himself, very wisely, to loud +exhortations to the remainder of the group, who were lads from the +town, to call off their dog; and the remainder of the group, with +equal wisdom and greater candour, were unanimously asserting that they +would be "in dhread" to touch the combatants. The dogs were well +matched--strong, yellow-red Irish terriers; each had the other by the +side of the throat, and each, with the deep, snuffling gurgles of +strenuous combat, was trying to better his hold on his enemy. + +Larry, swift in action as in thought, was off his bicycle and into the +ring without a second of hesitation. + +"Catch your dog by the tail," he shouted to the boys, while he +performed the like office for the Doctor's dog. "Now then! Into the +river with them!" + +The two dogs, fast in each other's jaws, were lifted, and were borne +across the road to the edge of the footpath, below which the river +ran, deep and strong. + +"Now then!" + +The two rough, yellow bodies were swung between Larry and his +coadjutor. + +"Now! Let 'em go!" + +The dogs flew like chain-shot through the air, and, with a tremendous +splash disappeared from view in the river. They rose to the surface +still keeping their hold of one another, and sank again. A second time +they rose without having loosened their grip, but at their third +appearance they were apart. + +"Now boys! Cruisht them well, or they'll be at it again when they +land!" + +The "cruishting," which means pelting with stones, succeeded. The +enemies landed at different points. Miss Mangan's charge was +recaptured, his antagonist was stoned by his owners until out of +range, and the incident closed. + +It was not, however, without result. + +"I think you never met Captain Cloherty, Mr. Coppinger?" said Tishy, +with a glance at Captain Cloherty that spoke disapproval. "He's not as +useful in a fight as you are, though he _is_ in the Army!" + +"My branch of the service mends wounds, it doesn't go out of its way +to get them!" returned Captain Cloherty, composedly, "and I haven't +any use for getting bitten." + +"Mr. Coppinger wasn't so nervous!" retorted Miss Mangan, scorchingly, +"and it's well for me he wasn't! What'd I say to the Doctor if I had +to tell him his pet dog was dead?" + +"Something else, I suppose!" suggested Captain Cloherty, his red +moustache lifting in a grin that Miss Mangan found excessively +exasperating; "it wouldn't be the best time to tell the truth at all!" + +"How funny you are!" said Tishy, with a blighting glance. "It's easy +to joke now, when Mr. Coppinger has done the work!" + +She swept another glance of her grey eyes at Larry, very different +from that that she had bestowed upon the callous Cloherty. + +Few young men object to exaltation at the expense of another, +especially if that other has two or three inches the advantage in +height, and they are themselves not unconscious of deserving. Larry +led his bicycle and walked beside Tishy, and found pleasure in meeting +her again after four years of absence. For one thing, she had become +even better-looking than he remembered her--turned into a thundering +handsome young woman, he thought--and it became him, as an artist, to +be a connoisseur in such matters. + +"Oh, so you're going to see the Doctor, are you?" she said, "I know he +was expecting you." She hesitated. "I told him I thought I'd be at +Mrs. Whelply's this afternoon. He--he might be surprised if he thought +I had Tinker out, and that he was in a fight--" + +"I'll keep it dark," Larry said, reassuringly, while he wondered if +the protecting darkness were also to envelop Captain Cloherty, +R.A.M.C. He thought, on the whole, perhaps, yes. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + +Major Talbot-Lowry had been in a passion for three days, and Lady +Isabel, who had borne the storm alone, longed for Christian's return, +as the lone keeper of a lighthouse might long for the support of his +comrade during a gale. + +Judith came to visit her parents on Monday, but Judith was very far +from being Christian, and could be relied on merely as far as a +counter-irritant might prove of service. + +"Well, of course, it was abominable impertinence of the priest to come +up with the tenants to try and bully you, Papa, but you know, I see +their point." Thus, Judith, annoyingly, and with pertinacity. + +"You do, do you!" interjected Judith's progenitor, his once ruddy face +now a congested purple. "It seems to me, Judith, you're always deuced +ready to see any one's point but mine!" + +"After all," went on Judith, with all the self-confidence and +intolerance of five and twenty, "it's in your interest to sell, just +as much as theirs to buy! With this detestable Government in power it +will be a case of the Sibylline Books. You'll see the Nationalists +will have it all their own way, and the next Act--" + +"Nationalists!" roared the Major, sitting upright in his chair, and +panting, his utterance temporarily checked by the sheer pressure of +all that he wished to say. "Don't talk to me of Nationalists! Common +thieves! That's all they are! There's no Nationalism about +_them_! Call it Socialism, if you like, or any other name for +robbery! They'd look very blue if _we_ took to shouting 'Ireland +a Nation!' and expecting to come in at the finish! They mightn't be +able to call us English invaders and to steal our property then! +English! I've got Brian Boroihme in my pedigree and that's more than +they can say! A pack of half-bred descendants of Cromwell's soldiers! +That's what they are, and the best of them, too! That's the best drop +of blood they've got!" Dick shouted, veering in the wind of his own +words like a rudderless ship in a storm. "That's what gives them +tenacity and bigotry! Look at the old places that they're squeezing +the old families out of! It's the Protestant farmers and the Religious +Orders that are getting them, swarming into them like rats! Don't tell +me that I and my family aren't a better asset to any country than a +lot of fat, lazy Monks and Nuns!" + +"But, Papa, they're not all fat!" said Judith, beginning to laugh. + +"Deuce a many of them's thin for want of plenty to eat!" returned +Dick, with the confidence of a man whose faith in his theories has +never been interfered with by investigation. He was recovering his +temper, having enjoyed the delivery of his diatribe; and the fact that +he had not only silenced Judith but had tickled her to a laugh, +restored his sense of domination. + +Poor old King Canute, with the tide by this time well above the tops +of his hunting-boots, and all the familiar landmarks becoming +submerged, one after the other! It may be easy to deride him, but it +is hard not to pity him. + +This was on Monday, and Christian returned from her week-end visit +that evening. Judith stayed, and went with Christian to her room. + +"Well, my dear," she began, eagerly, as the door closed, "when are you +going to announce it?" + +Christian sat down on her bed. She was looking very tired. + +"Never, I think!" + +Without paying attention to Judith's exclamation she took a newspaper +out of the pocket of her top-coat, and handed it to her sister. + +"This is this evening's paper. I got it at the Junction. Read that." +She pointed to a paragraph. + +Judith read it; then she dropped the paper, and gazed at Christian +with dramatic consternation. + +"The idiot!" she said, at length. "Couldn't you stop him?" + +"He had promised years ago. I didn't try. He couldn't break his word." + +"Oh, rot!" said Judith, briefly. + +"You know he couldn't, Judy." + +"Well, you know, this will finish him with Papa," said Judith, +gloomily. "He's bad enough as it is about the sales to the tenants, +and I was prepared for rows over the religious business, of course, +but this! Can't you" + +"I can't do anything," interrupted Christian, getting up. "I heard +from him this morning, fearfully keen about it, but he didn't know +then if the Party were going to adopt him. Evidently they have." + +"Trust them for that!" said Judith, with a heavy groan. "I suppose +Larry thinks we shall all be delighted! What fools men are! Bill did +say once that it had been suggested--oh, ages ago, when Larry came of +age; Ma-in-law told him--but we thought it had died out." + +Christian hardly heard what she said. She was standing at the open +window, in the stillness that tells of intense mental engrossment. +Self-deception was impossible for her; her mind was too acute for +tolerance of subterfuge; and for her, also, away and beyond the +merciless findings of intellect was the besetment of presentiment, +intuition, inward convictions that can override logical conclusions, +words that are breathed in the soul as by a wind, and, like the wind, +are born and die in mystery. + +The last of the daylight had gone; there was a touch of frost; the sky +was clear and hard, the stars shone with sharp brilliance, some of +them had long, slanting rays on either hand that looked like wings of +light; a new moon glittered among them, keen and clean, and vindictive +as a scimitar; in the quiet, the low murmur of the Broadwater pervaded +the night. Judith watched her sister with unconsciously appraising +eyes, noting the straight slenderness of her figure, the small, +high-held, dark head. + +"Old people are intolerable!" she thought; "she shall _not_ +sacrifice herself to Papa's prejudices! If she likes Larry she shall +have him!" + +But she was too wise to argue with Christian. + +Dick Talbot-Lowry, though now arrived at the age of sixty-nine, was as +unconvinced as ever of the fact that time had got the better of him, +and that its despotism was daily deepening. He admitted that he had +become something of an invalid, but that his elder daughter should +have classified him as an old person would have appeared to him as +absurd and offensive. There are minds that keep this inveterate +youthfulness; that learn nothing of age, and forget nothing of youth. +It is an attitude sometimes charming, sometimes undignified, always +pathetic. Christian saw old age as a tragedy, a disaster, to alleviate +which no effort on the part of the young could be too great; the +pathos and the pity of it were ever before her eyes. In contest with +her father, if contest there were to be, she would go into the arena +with her right hand tied behind her back. + +Without any definite admission of failure, Major Talbot-Lowry had been +brought to submit to having his breakfast in bed, and Robert Evans, a +sour and withered Ganymede, was the bearer of it. He was also the +bearer of any gossip that might be available, and seldom failed to +provide his master with a stimulant and irritant. On the morning +following on Christian's return it was very evident that intelligence +of unusual greatness seethed in the cauldron wherein fermented Mr. +Evans' brew of news. His rook-like eye sparkled, his movements, even +that walk for whose disabilities it may be remembered that the pantry +boy had thanked his God, were alert and purposeful. + +"Ye didn't see the _Irish Times_ yet, I think?" he began, +standing over his master, and looking down upon him with an expression +as triumphant and malign as that of a carrion-crow with a piece of +stolen meat. He rarely bestowed the usual honorifics upon Dick, +considering that his five years' seniority relieved him of such +obligations. "I wouldn't believe all I'd read in the papers, but this +is true, anyway!" + +"What's true?" said Major Dick, irritably; "you've forgotten the salt +again, Evans! How the devil can I eat an egg without salt? Send one of +the maids for it--don't go yourself," he added, as Evans left the +room. "The old fool'd be all day getting it," he said to himself, with +an old man's contempt for old age in another. "Now, then," as Evans +returned, "what's your wonderful bit of news?" + +"Ye can read it there for yourself," replied Evans, coldly; he was +ruffled by the episode of the salt. + +"Damn it, man, I can't read the paper and eat an egg!" snapped the +Major. "Out with your lie, whatever it is!" + +"Master Larry's chosen for the Member in place of Prendergast," said +Evans, sulkily. + +If Evans had been unfortunate in the way in which his sensation had +been led up to, its reception left him nothing to desire. Dick was +stricken to an instant of complete silence. Then he roared to Evans to +take the damned tray out of his way, and to give him the (otherwise +qualified) paper. + +It would serve no purpose, useful or otherwise, to attempt to record +Dick Talbot-Lowry's denunciations of Larry, of his religion, and of +his politics; of, secondarily, his ingratitude; his treachery, and his +lack of the most rudimentary elements of a gentleman. They lasted +long, and lacked nothing of effect that strength of lung and vigour of +language could bring to them. And Evans, the many-wintered crow, +hearkened, and rejoiced that he was seeing his desire of his enemy. + +"No! I won't eat it! Take it away--I don't want it, I tell you! Curse +you, can't you do as you're bid?" Thus spake Dick Talbot-Lowry, +flinging himself back on his pillows, and shoving the breakfast-tray +from him. The hot purple colour that had flooded his face was fading; +his voice was getting hoarse and weak. Evans, with an apprehensive eye +on his master's changed aspect, carried the tray out of the room. + +There was a quick step on the stairs, and Larry came lightly along the +landing. + +"The Major up, Evans? No? Oh, all right! May I come in, Cousin Dick?" + +He swung into the room. + +Old Evans carefully shut the door behind him. + +"Now me laddy-o!" he whispered, rubbing his hooked grey beak with one +finger, and chuckling low and wheezily: "Now, maybe! Me fine young +Papist! Ye'll be getting your tay in a mug! Hot and strong! Hot and +strong!" + +He moved away from the door with the tray of untouched breakfast +things. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +Lady Isabel was returning from her accustomed housekeeping morning +visit to Mrs. Dixon, when she was startled by the sharp outcry of an +electric bell. + +"Dick's room!" she said to herself, beginning to hurry; she hardly +knew why. + +A housemaid ran down the long passage in front of her, flying to the +summons. Through the open door of the dining-room Lady Isabel saw +Christian giving the dogs their breakfast. + +"Papa's bell is ringing, dear," said Lady Isabel, breathing hard. + +"I heard someone go up to his room just now," said Christian, +languidly; "I haven't seen him this morning; I was in the yard with +the dogs--" + +Someone came down the stairs, headlong, two steps at a time. Larry's +voice shouted: + +"Christian! Cousin Isabel! Anyone--!" + +There was urgency and alarm in the voice. + +Lady Isabel and Christian were in the hall in an instant, and met +Larry at the foot of the stairs. + +"Cousin Dick's ill! A heart attack, I think--I didn't know what to do +for him--" + +"I do!" said Christian, speeding upstairs. + +Her mother followed her, and Larry remained in the hall. Of one thing +he was quite certain, that he had better keep out of Cousin Dick's +sight. His nerves were quivering from the interview that had been so +shatteringly abbreviated. Had the friendly old setter, whose head at +this moment was on his knee, while her limpid eyes swore to him that +all her love was his, suddenly turned and rent him, it would scarcely +be a shock worse than that he had received. He had been undeterred by +the ominous gloom of the Major's greeting; few young men have very +keen perception of mood, and Larry, deeply self-engrossed, wildly +happy, had flung at once into his theme, which, it need hardly be +said, was Christian. Then the storm broke, and the lightning blazed, +and the thunders of the house uttered their voice, while Larry, +amazed, horrified, gradually, as the invective gathered volume and +venom, becoming angry, stood in silence, and received in a single +cloud-burst the bitter flood of long-pent prejudice, jealousy, and +sense of injury. + +"Dead!" Dick had roared; "I'd rather see her dead in her coffin than +married to--" + +The epithets that a hoarded hatred finds ready to hand when its pent +force is released, come horribly from the lips of an old man. Yet, +almost more horrible than the full tide of rage, was to see its ebb, +as "the sick old servant" in Major Dick's bosom failed him, and his +heart staggered and fainted in its effort to abet him in denouncing +the young cousin who he thought had wronged him. + +Larry sat, fondling the old setter's chestnut head, thinking it all +over, flaming again at the remembered insults, quailing at the +possibilities as they concerned Christian. Once she had appeared at +the top of the stairs, and said the single word, "Better!" before she +vanished. + +One half of Larry's mind said "Better? What do I care? Better if he +dies, if he comes between me and her!" The other, which was his deeper +self, preserved the memory of Dick's greying face and frightened eyes, +and was glad that relief had come. + +At last Christian came to him, slowly and with a dragging step, down +the wide staircase. Her face was white, her eyes were set in shadows. + +"How is he?" + +"Round the corner, I think. We've wired for Mangan." + +"Christian, I want to explain--I said nothing--I never meant to annoy +him, I began about you, and that--that we loved each other. For we do, +Christian, don't we?" He had her hands in his, he crushed them in his +anxiety, his eyes implored her. "Then suddenly he began to abuse me +like a madman! My religion, my politics, my treachery to my class--I +can't tell you what he didn't say! And then he swore he'd rather see +you dead than married to me. I don't know what I said--nothing, I +think; he began to look as if he were dying himself, and I rang the +bell and bolted for you." + +"Poor boy!" said Christian. + +He thought that her face as she looked at him was as it were the face +of an angel, but the sorrow in it frightened him. + +"Come into the study," she said, freeing her hands from his grasp; "we +can't talk here." + +The study door was open; he followed her in silence, and, shutting the +door, sat down beside her on the sofa. + +"Larry, we've got to face it, you know; we've got to face it," she +began, and gave back to him her slender sensitive hand, as if to heal +the wound of what the words implied. + +"Face what?" said Larry, stubbornly, girding himself for resistance. + +"Face delay--opposition--" + +"I'll face opposition as much as you like, but I won't face delay! Why +should we? We're of age. There's nothing against me!" + +Christian smiled faintly. + +"Dear child, I know that. It's not the facts that are against us, it's +the fancies--" + +"I won't be patronised!" said Larry, vehemently. "I'm not your dear +child! I'm the man you've promised to marry! No one's fancies have a +right to interfere with us!" + +His arm was round her, and he felt her tremble. He loosed her hand, +and with his hand that had held it he turned her face to his. Then he +kissed her, many times, with an ever-growing abandonment as he felt +the response that she tried in vain to withhold. + +At length, in spite of him, she hid her face in his shoulder. + +"No, Larry, no!" she gasped, her breath coming short. "Dearest, don't +be cruel to me! How can I keep that promise! If you had seen Papa just +now and Mother--her terror and her helplessness! How could I leave +them? Supposing that I defied him, and married you, and that he died +in one of these furies! Just think what that would be for us!" + +"He wouldn't die!" said Larry, obstinately. "People don't die as easy +as all that!" he added, with a fierce thought of regret that Dick had +not gone out in this latest storm. + +"Listen," said Christian, beseechingly. "Don't let us be in such a +hurry. Everything needn't be settled at once. We'll ask Dr. Mangan how +Papa is, and if there is real danger for him in these rages. He was +nearly as bad on Saturday after the Priest and the tenants had been +here." + +Larry's face was dark; he was not used to opposition. His guardians +and his spiritual directors had alike found that while he was easy to +lead, he was a difficulty and a danger to drive. He was stirred to the +depths now. The strain of receiving Dick's onslaught in silence, the +shock of his collapse, and now the fire that Christian's nearness and +dearness had lit in him, all broke his self-control. He held her to +him. + +"I will never let you go! Never--!" His lips were on hers again, life, +with all its difficulties, was again forgotten, the rhyme of the +Fairies' Well galloped in his hot brain: + + "My heart in your hands, your heart in me." + +The sound of the hall door opening, and the grinding roar of a motor +engine running down, recalled them both to this troublesome world. + +But in Christian's heart, whether from within or from without, a voice +had spoken, telling the kisses, one by one, as though they were the +petals of a flower. "This year, next year, sometime, never!" If the +last word had been "sometime," or "never," she knew not; she knew only +that if what before her was the way of renunciation, she would find it +a hard way to walk in. + +Dr. Mangan stood, a massive presence, at the top of the stairs, and +talked massively to Lady Isabel of Dick's condition. + +"Very critical--no worries--nourishment--would he have a nurse?" + +To which Lady Isabel, a poor, shaken, pallid Lady Isabel, with no more +backbone than the shape of blancmange, which, it must be said, she +somewhat resembled, replied: "_Nothing_ would induce him!" + +"Then I should like to have a little talk with Miss Christian," said +the Big Doctor, beginning to walk downstairs, slowly, solemnly, +solidly, like a trick-elephant at a circus. + +Christian's quick ears had heard his voice on the stairs, and she met +him in the hall. Larry stood irresolute at the door of the study. His +eyes met those of the Doctor, and something during the interchange of +glances suggested that his presence was not desired. He returned to +the study and shut the door, and wished that he could have a word +alone with the Doctor, just to put him up to what to say to Christian. +He could hear the heavy rumble of the Doctor's bass voice, and the +soft alto murmur of Christian's replies. She had the Irish voice, +pitched on a low note, an instrument more apt for pathos than for +gaiety, which is, perhaps, what gives to its gaiety so special a +charm. + +Larry stood by the window with his hands in his pockets, trying to +steady himself. Deep under his panic uncertainty as to the strength of +his hold on Christian, was the anger that Dick's denunciation had +roused in him, and momently, as his mind went back over the interview, +remembrance of the insults became more unendurable. Abuse from the old +to the young, and from a sick man to a sound one, cannot fail to +rankle, since it cannot be flung back. Generosity may impose silence, +but it cannot obliterate an insult or heal a wound. + +Christian came into the room; he heard her come, but he would not look +round. She slid her hand into his arm. + +"Larry! Dear! Listen to me; there's no way out of it but patience! Dr. +Mangan says he _must_ be kept absolutely quiet, and have nothing +to annoy him. He says he might die in an instant in one of those +attacks. He's not himself now, Larry--so little makes him lose +self-control--" She paused, but Larry did not speak. "You couldn't +want me to sacrifice the little share of life left to him to our +happiness; I know you couldn't! Larry, he's an old man; it can't be +for very long--" + +"I don't see that that follows," said Larry, implacably. "He had +strength enough to blackguard me very thoroughly, and it hasn't done +him any harm. It seems to me, _I'm_ the one to be sacrificed!" + +"He spoke to Mother about us--about what you said to him. He began +about it the instant he could speak. She--" Christian hesitated, +"she could only quiet him by saying there was no engagement between +us." + +"Then she said what wasn't true!" + +"Oh, it _must_ be true!" said Christian, desperately; "it's got +to be true--" + +"Very well," said Larry, moving away, so that her hand fell from his +arm. "If it's got to be true I suppose there's no more to be said. I +may as well go. After all, I daresay you're well quit of me. Your +father says I'm a damned Papist and--" + +"I won't listen to you!" broke in Christian. "What's the use of +hurting me and hurting yourself like this? Larry, I'll wait for you +for ever--you know that--time will make no difference. Don't make it +harder for me than it must be!" + +"You don't seem to think much about _me_" said Larry, with a +still rage that was a new thing with him. He left her side, and walked +steadily to the door; then he turned, and in a few quick steps came +back to her. He put his hands on her shoulders; he was not much taller +than she, and his eyes looked straight into hers. + +"Then it's true, is it? You're off it? You've given me the chuck?" + +He spoke roughly, and gripped her harder than he knew, and in the +tension of her nerves, the roughness of the words and action cut her +like the stroke of a whip. Almost as if he had struck her, a splash of +colour came in her face. + +Larry was blind to the torture in her eyes, but he saw the quick red, +and knew he had hurt her high spirit, and was glad. + +"If you like to put it in that way!" said Christian, her head up, her +mood answering his, "apparently it is the only thing to be done!" + +There came a tap at the door. Dr. Mangan's voice said: "I'm going back +to Cluhir now. Haven't you to meet Father Greer at twelve o'clock, +Larry? I could give you a lift if you like--" + + * * * * * + +From an early work on the Fauna of the Indian Forest the following +extract may be quoted: + +"The elephant's trunk then encircled the young man's body, and placing +him gently upon its back, the huge creature ambled away with its prize +to the depths of the jungle." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + +Little Mary Twomey, footing it into Cluhir on a misty Saturday +morning, with a basket of fowl under her brown and buff shawl, was not +sorry when, from a side road on the line of march, a donkey-cart, +driven by an acquaintance, drew forth at the instant of her passing. + +"God bless ye, John Brien," she said, when the suitable salutations +and comments on the weather had been exchanged, with the rigorous +courtesy observed by such as Mary Twomey and John Brien with one +another, "this basket is very weighty on me--" + +"Put it up on the butt, ma'am," responded John Brien. "Put it up, for +God's sake, and let you sit up with it. Sure the ass is able for more +than yourself!" + +This referred, with polite facetiousness, to Mrs. Twomey's stature, +and was taken by her in excellent part. + +She uttered a brief screech. "Isn't it what they say they puts the +best of goods in the small passels?" she demanded; "but for all, I +wouldn't wish it to be too small altogether! 'Look!' I says to that +owld man I have, 'Look! When I'll be dead, let ye tell the +car-pennther that he'll make the coffin a bit-een too long, the way +the people'll think the womaneen inside in it wasn't altogether too +small entirely!'" + +"Arrah, don't talk of dyin' for a while, ma'am!" said John Brien, +gallantly. "Aren't you an' me about the one age, and faith, when +you're dyin' I'll be sending for the priest for meself!" + +"Well, please God, the pair of us'll knock out a spell yet!" responded +Mrs. Twomey, cheerfully; "for as little as I am, the fly itself +wouldn't like to die!" + +John Brien did not question this assertion. "The 'fluenzy is very +raging these times," he remarked. + +"'Tis a nassty, dirty disease altogether, God help us!" said Mrs. +Twomey, with feeling. + +"It is, and very numerous," replied John Brien. "There's people dying +now that never died before." + +This statement presented no difficulty to Mrs. Twomey, since she had +no desire to exult over Mr. Brien as being what is often called a +typical Irishman, and was able to accept its rather excessive emphasis +in the sense in which it was intended. + +"I'm told Major Lowry is sick enough," went on John Brien; "an +impression like, on the heart, they tells me." + +"He have enough to trouble him," said Mrs. Twomey, portentously; "and +I wouldn't wish it to him. A fine man he was. Ye'd stand in the road +to look at him! The highest gentleman of the day!" + +"Well, that's true enough," said John Brien, cautiously. "There's some +says the servants in the house didn't get their hire this two years." + +"Dirty little liars!" said Mrs. Twomey, warmly. "Divil mend them, and +their chat! There isn't one but has as many lies told as'd sicken an +ass! Wasn't I selling a score of eggs to the Docthor's wife a' +Saturday, and she askin' me this an' that, and 'wasn't it said young +Mr. Coppinger was to marry Miss Christhian Lowry'? Ah ha! She was dam' +sweet, but she didn't get--" Mrs. Twomey swiftly licked and exhibited +a grey and wrinkled finger--"_that_ much from me!" + +"Ha, very good, faith!" said John Brien; "them women wants to know too +much!" + +"And if they do itself," retorted Mrs. Twomey, instant in defence of +her sex, "isn't it to plase the min that's follyin' them for the news! +Yis! An' they too big fools to hear it for theirselves!" + +John Brien, somewhat stupefied by this home thrust, made no reply, but +smote the donkey heavily, provoking it to a jog that temporarily +jolted conversation to death. + +At the next incline, however, Mrs. Twomey took up her parable again. + +"Tell me now awhile, John, what day is this th' election is?" + +"I d'no if it isn't Choosday week it is," replied John Brien, without +interest. "There's two o' them up for it now. Young Coppinger, that +was the first in it, and a chap from T'prairy. What's this his name +is?--Burke, I think it is. Sure they had two meetin's after chapel at +Riverstown last Sunday. Roaring there they were out o' mothor-cars. +But it's little I regard them and their higs and thrigs!" + +"Why wouldn't ye wote for Larry Coppinger, John?" said Mrs. Twomey, +persuasively "and him 'All-for-Ireland'! A strong, cocky young boy he +is too; greatly for composhing he is, an' painting, an' the like o' +that. Sure didn't I tell him it was what it was he had a rag on every +bush! 'Well,' says he, 'Mrs. Twomey,' says he, 'I'll have another rag +on another bush soon,' says he. 'Sir,' says I to him, 'that much would +not surpass your honour!' But faith, they're tellin' me now Burke'll +have him bet out, and I'm sorry to me heart for it." + +John Brien looked from one side of the road to the other, and ahead, +between his donkey's ears. The mist was close round the cart as the +walls of a room; the only sound was the thin wind singing in the +telegraph wires. + +"Mrs. Twomey," murmured John Brien, "the Clergy is agin him!" + +"Oh, great and merciful Lord God!" said Mrs. Twomey. She said it +without either irreverence or reverence. She merely wished to express +to John Brien her comprehension of the importance of his statement. + +Larry had flung himself into electioneering as an alternative to +drink. That was how he put it to himself. He took rooms at Hallinan's +Hotel, in Cluhir, in order to be on top of the railway station, and +the situation generally, and he had, moreover, a standing invitation +to No. 6, The Mall, for any meal, at any hour of the day or night, +that he found suitable. The district to be canvassed was a wide one, +and day after day Larry and the faithful Barty went forth to interview +"People of importance"; darkly-cautious publicans, with wives lurking +at hand to make sure that "Himself" should do nothing rash; +uninterested farmers, who "had their land bought," and were left cold +by the differences 'twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee; and visits to +"The Clergy" of all denominations, productive of much artificially +friendly converse and no very definite promises. + +Of Larry's own Communion, Father Tim Sweeny alone announced himself, +unhesitatingly, as being of Larry's camp. Father Tim's hostility had +not been proof against Larry's charms, more especially since these +were combined with a substantial proof of the young candidate's +interest in the decoration of the new chapel; and, at the gate of that +chapel, (the site of which he did not forget that he owed to Larry) he +attended one of Larry's meetings, and shook his bovine head at his +flock, and bellowed ferocious commendation of the young man, who, he +thundered, had not failed in his duty by the Church and the people. +There was a downright, fighting quality in Father Sweeny that was +large and stimulating. Larry felt that he had, at least, his own +parish firmly at his back, and wished that he had a few more such as +Father Tim to stand by him. + +The Rev. Matthew Cotton (stiffened by Mrs. Cotton) said that to enter +a hustings for a Home Ruler, of any variety, would be for him an +unauthorised bowing down in the House of Rimmon, a simile that +conveyed little to Larry, and nothing at all, allegorically, to his +agent, Barty Mangan, though its practical interpretation presented no +difficulties to either of them. + +The Reverend Mr. Armstrong, Pastor of the Methodists, admitted to a +preference for an "All-for-Irelander," as opposed to an Official +Nationalist; but evaded the responsibility of a promise by saying that +he would lay the matter before the Lord, and would write later. + +Neither did young Mr. Coppinger receive much encouragement from his +own class. Bill Kirby, indeed, undertook to support him and even +volunteered to go round with him on his canvassing expeditions, but +this was considered by Larry's Committee as being of questionable +advantage, even, possibly, affording to the enemy an occasion to +blaspheme, and the offer (made, it may be said, at Judith's +instigation) was declined. + +Nor, as a matter of fact, was Larry himself disposed to take Bill +Kirby's proffered hand. He told himself that he was done with that +lot. He was bitterly angry with Christian. He said to himself that he +would never forgive her; would never, if he could help it, see one of +them again. At a word from her father she had chucked him; without a +moment of hesitation, without a word to show that she was even sorry +for her father's treatment of him. "Apparently it's the only thing to +do!" she had said. That was all she thought of keeping a promise! What +about leaving father and mother and sticking to your husband, he would +like to know! These Protestants who talked such a lot about reading +the Bible! It was quite true what old Mangan had said: "When all comes +to all, a man must stick to his own Church!" All these others, these +St. Georges, and Westropps, and old Ardmore, and the rest of them, had +only been waiting to jump on him as soon as he put a foot out of the +rut they all walked in. They had waited for the chance to make him a +pariah. Now they had it. All right! He could face that. They should +soon see how little he thought of them! + +He pitched himself headlong into the contest. The weather had fallen +from grace. October, having been borne in on the wings of a gale, was +storming on through wind and wet, and the game of canvassing, that had +seemed, on that sunny day when he had written to Christian, so +"frightfully interesting," was beginning to pall. Boring as were the +personal interviews, and exhausting the evening oratory in town halls +and school-houses, the Sunday meetings at the gates of the chapels +were still more arduous. On each Sunday, during the period between the +death of Daniel Prendergast and the election of his successor, did +young Mr. Coppinger, with chosen members of his "Commy-tee"--he had +learnt to accept the inflexible local pronunciation--splash from +chapel to chapel, to meet the congregations, and to shout platitudes +to them. Larry began to feel that no conviction--however fervently +held--could survive the ordeal of being slowly yelled to a bored crowd +from the front seat of a motor car. He told himself that he had become +a gramophone, and a tired gramophone, badly in want of winding up, at +that. + +It would be of little avail to attempt to define the precise shade of +green of young Mr. Coppinger's political flag; whether, as a facetious +supporter put it, it was "say-green, pay-green, tay-green, or bottle." +It is enough to say that it varied sufficiently from that of Mr. Burke +to provide their respective followers with a satisfactory _casus +belli_. The shades of political opinion in Ireland change, and melt +and merge into each other as the years pass, even as the colours of +her surrounding seas vary, deepening and paling with the changing +clouds, yet affecting only the surface, leaving the sullen depths +unchanged. Larry knew no more of Ireland than a boy can learn in his +school holidays; it was only by degrees that he realised that in +Ireland, as he now found it, the single element of discord that +remained ever unchanged was Religion. He had spent the four most +recent and most receptive years of his life in an atmosphere in which +religion had no existence. The hem of its raiment might, perhaps, have +been touched, when, as sometimes happened, the subject of a studio +composition was taken from the Bible, or the Apocrypha. Then, +possibly, would the young pagans of Larry's circle discover as much +acquaintance with the Scriptures as would point a jest, and give an +agreeable sensation of irreverence in discussing the details of the +subject. + +"There," thought Larry, "no one thought about your religion. No one +cared if you had one, and the presumption was that you hadn't." But +here, in these little Irish towns, the question of a man's private +views on a matter that might be supposed to concern only himself, +appeared of paramount importance. He listened to denunciations of +Protestants until he felt, as he told the faithful Barty, that "for +tuppence" he would change over himself; just as in some sections of +the rival camp, he would have heard to weariness of the bigotry and +errors of Romanism. He was brought, as many people more God-fearing +than he have been brought, to debate the question as to whether a +common atheism were not the only panacea for the mutual hatreds that, +as appeared to him from his present point of view, ruled the Island of +Saints. He and Barty would sit up over the dying embers of the +dining-room fire of No. 6, The Mall, talking; wrangling, in a sort of +country-dance of argument, in which they advanced and retired, and +joined hands, and flung away from each other again; ending, generally, +in such agreement as might be found in a common determination to lay +all the blame for all the malice and uncharitableness at the door of +the clergy of the two creeds; a comprehensive decision, and a +consoling one, from the point of view of two laymen. + +Larry, in his loneliness, had fallen into the habit of frequenting No. +6; of "taking pot-luck," of "dropping in," or of "turning in," all of +which courses had been urged upon him by his captor, Dr. Mangan. Those +great and special gifts of the Mangan family, the love of music, and +the habit of it (which are not always allied) bestowed upon the +household a charm that was almost more potent for Larry than any other +could have been. At the end of a long day of canvassing, spent with +companions who, he felt, only half trusted him, and were incapable of +being amused by the things that amused him (a factor in friendship +that cannot be valued too highly) it was comforting to "drop in" to +the hospitable, untidy house, where, thanks to Mrs. Mangan's early +experiences, there was always good luck in the pot, and to spend a +peaceful evening over the fire, smoking, and listening to the famous +Mangan Quartet. Music was the initial point of contact between Larry +and these people among whom he had once more been cast, and the Big +Doctor was not unaware of the fact. Singly, or united, the Mangan +voices, mellow, tuneful, singing songs of Ireland with artless grace +and charm, wrought more in Larry's soul than he was aware of. Not only +to his ears, but to his eyes also, the Mangan Quartet brought artistic +satisfaction. The Big Doctor, with his sombre face and overhanging +brow, looking, in the lamplight, like a Rembrandt burgomaster; Barty +and his mother, pale and dark-eyed, recalling Southern Italy rather +than Southern Ireland; and Tishy--Larry's eyes used to dwell longest +on Tishy, her face lit by her most genuine feeling, the love of music, +while her voice of velvet (of purple velvet, he decided) mourned for +Patrick Sarsfield, or lamented with Emer for Cuchulain, or thrilled +her listener with the sudden glory of "The Foggy Dew." Larry's own +voice was habitually exhausted by the cart-tail oratory in which he +daily expended it; it was enough for him to listen and look, shutting +his mind to the past, living, as ever, in the present, like a wise +man, because its bounty sufficed him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + +At a little before this time a sufficiently epoch-making scene had +taken place between Dr. Mangan and his daughter, following not long on +that day when the elephant had conveyed his captive to the depths of +the jungle. + +"Tishy!" said the Big Doctor, looming large at the door of the +dining-room where his daughter was engaged in trimming a hat, "come +down to the surgery a minute; I want you." + +The feather to which Miss Mangan had just imparted the correct "set," +was only fixed in position with a precarious pin, none the less, +Tishy, albeit vexed, did not delay. She had a well-founded respect for +the Fifth Commandment, as far, at all events, as her father was +concerned. She abandoned the hat, and followed the Doctor through the +narrow hall-passage and into the surgery, with a promptness that she +was not wont to exhibit in obeying an order that was not convenient. + +Dr. Mangan had seated himself at his desk, and was writing. Tishy +stood by the seat dedicated to patients; she wished to imply that she +had been interrupted in her work, and that her time was of value. + +"There now," said Dr. Mangan, thumping the envelope that he had just +closed and directed, on the blotting-paper, with his big fist, "I want +you to run round to Hallinan's with this for me." + +"Is it a hurry?" asked Tishy, unwillingly. + +"It is. It's to order rooms for Larry Coppinger. He's coming to stay +in town till the election's over. Sit down there a minute." + +Tishy obeyed, and the Doctor surveyed her attentively. The position +that is assigned to patients in a doctor's consulting room is one that +faces the light, pitilessly, inescapably; but for Tishy, this was a +negligible disadvantage. A peacock butterfly looks its best in +sunlight, and Tishy's dark bloom, and intent eyes of luminous grey, +faced the glare of October sunlight with confident unconcern. + +"A right-down handsome girl!" he had called her, to himself, more +than-once; now, he thought, she had good looks enough for any man in +Europe. It was not his habit to betray his feelings; but as he sat +there, appraising her, weighing her beauty, as a jeweller might +appraise some rich-hued ruby that a kind fate had placed in his hands, +sheer pride in her made him smile, and he was hard put to it to keep +up the severity that he believed the occasion exacted. + +"I've a couple of things to say to you," he resumed, "and you know as +well as I do that I've no fancy for saying things twice. I've seen Ned +Cloherty sneaking about the Mall very often lately--like as if he was +waiting for somebody. I'm not saying it's for you or me he's waiting; +you might know that better than I do. But he's no great ornament to +the view there, or anywhere else, as far as I can see!" + +Tishy put her strong, rounded chin in the air, and said, "I suppose +other people have a right to use the roads as well as us!" + +The Doctor was glad that his face was shadowed, as he noted the +arrogant tilt of her head, and the smooth, cream-white pillar of her +neck that it revealed, since the smile of paternal pride would not be +denied. He didn't blame Ned Cloherty to be sneaking about after her; +there wasn't her like in the county. But she very certainly was too +good for the likes of Ned Cloherty. "Now, Babsey," he said, and Tishy +knew that the old pet name denoted a satisfaction with her that might +not otherwise betray itself, "you're a sensible girl, and I needn't go +out of my way to tell you things that you're smart enough to see for +yourself. You're 'pert enough without Latin'--as they say! Well, I'll +just say one other thing to you, and it's this. Larry Coppinger's up +for this election, and I've told him to use this house, like his own, +as much as he wants to," the Doctor stood up and took a pocket-book +from the breast-pocket of his coat. "You're to make it agreeable for +him to come here. Mind that! And more than agreeable! I'll think very +little of you if you don't have him at your feet before you're done +with him!" he went on, selecting something from among the papers in +the pocket-book as he spoke. "There's not a girl in Ireland that +wouldn't half hang herself for the chance you'll have! And there's not +a girl in Cluhir but will be gibeing you if you lose it!" He took a +step towards where Tishy was sitting, and put his hand under his chin. + +Her bright water-grey eyes were alight with mutiny; she laughed +defiantly. + +"Suppose I don't want it!" + +Her father looked steadily at her; he saw, as clearly as if she had +spoken, that the suggestion had excited her. + +"Well, Babs," he said, with the laugh that always seemed an octave +higher than matched with his voice, "if you're able to bring him to +your feet--and I'm not saying you will! You might find it a bit of a +job too!--you'll want a dandy pair of shoes on them! Put this in your +pocket." + +He had taken a ten-pound note out of his pocket-book, and he pushed it +into Tishy's strong and supple white hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + + +Great pain paralyses the mind, as the torture of a limb makes the limb +faint and helpless. When the heart-pain can be dealt with as a +separate thing, it is no longer supreme. + +This was the difference between Christian and Larry. Her love was +herself, indivisible, a condition of her being. When it ceased, it +would mean that the creature that called herself Christian +Talbot-Lowry had ceased also. During the long, bright morning, after +Larry and Dr. Mangan had departed together, she felt that this had +happened; that the part of her that knew and suffered had gone away, +or was lying dead in her. There was a weight in her breast, she could +feel it, but she scarcely felt pain, only a great bewilderment, an +incredulity that this thing, of whose reality her mind told her, but +without conviction, should have happened to her, just precisely to +her, out of all the people in the world. People have felt this when +that iron shutter that is called Death has fallen between them and +that one who was their share of the world. A part of them, some +plausible imitation of them, can speak and act, and be extolled, +perhaps, for facing the music stoutly; while the stricken thing that +is themselves, is lying prone before the iron shutter; beating on it +with broken hands, calling, and hearing no answer. + +It was nearly a month now since Dick Talbot-Lowry had asserted his +paternal rights, and had, following various classic and biblical +precedents, sacrificed his daughter to his own particular formulae of +religion and politics. He would never know that it had been the appeal +that weakness makes to strength that had given him his victory. When +he spoke to Lady Isabel of his scene with Larry, he told her that he +had nipped the thing in the bud. The damned puppy of a fellow took for +granted that Christian was in love with him; but here she was, going +about as usual, as jolly as a sandboy; "in fact," Dick would say, +plastering up with bromidic mortar the windows of the narrow dwelling +wherein dwelt Lady Isabel's soul, "all's well that ends well!" With +which valuable aphorism, sanctioned by a long and respectable past, +the Major contentedly fed his heart, and tranquillised that of his +wife. + +Judith was less confident of the satisfactory end of all things. She +was, in fact, exceedingly indignant that an engagement so entirely +advantageous from all practical points of view should be broken off; +"simply to gratify Papa's imbecile prejudices!" she declared, with her +usual emphasis. "Christian, you were a fool to mind what he said or +did. _He_ wouldn't have died! Not a bit of him! Of course, Mother +has got to agree with him--that's what he married her for!" + +"Don't tire me, Judy, please," Christian would say, serenely. "It's +all over now. These discussions only weary me. I assure you my +philosophy is quite equal to the strain!" + +"If that's the case, I don't know why you should look like a dying +ghost!" + +Judith had never entirely comprehended her younger sister, and she +found her, as she said with indignation to the concurring Bill, +absolutely dark and inscrutable over the whole affair. + +"I know it's hit her hard, but nothing will make her admit it. I +detest Spartan Boys!" said Judith. + +The Spartan Boy in question, though aware of her sister's ardent +desire to investigate her wounds, had no intention of removing the +cloak that covered them. She wrapped it close about her, so close that +Lady Isabel, while unable to stifle a motherly regret for the wedding +that might have been, thanked heaven that Christian had not "really +cared"; so close that even Judith said that, since Christian had not +been hit too hard, though she regretted the _coup manque_ she +personally found some consolation in the fact that she would not be +called upon to make apologies for the political aberrations of her +brother-in-law. + +The polling day came, and passed with but little excitement. + +"You wouldn't har'ly know it," said a voter, who had returned to his +normal avocations after a morning wasted, as he considered, in the +task of recording his vote. "There was a few men drunk in the town. +Which won is it? Bedad, they dunno yet. Father Sweeny it was marched +in the Pribawn boys. Faith, he had them well regulated. Very nate they +marched, very nate entirely. They never were in such rotation!" + +The voter bent melancholy and slightly bloodshot eyes upon Christian, +and awaited her reply. + +Christian, with her usual miscellaneous company of dogs, was on her +way to visit a woman whose husband had died not long before. Her way +took her along the banks of the Broadwater, and during one of the +frequent pauses, necessitated by the investigations into the private +affairs of water-rats and others, made by her companions, she and +Peter Callaghan had exchanged greetings. He and Christian had fallen +into talk, with the absence of formality that is, perhaps, peculiar to +intercourse between his class and hers. He leant upon his scythe, and +discoursed seriously and courteously. He wore a soft, slouched black +hat, that did not wholly conceal his thick and curly hair, in which +there was scarcely a grey strand, though he was, as he told Christian, +the one age with her father. His white flannel jacket was wrapped +round him, its skirts pushed under the band of his brown frieze +trousers. A red wisp of rag was knotted round his middle, and held all +together. His pale grey and wistful eyes looked at Christian from +above a tangled thicket of grizzled moustache and beard. He suggested +almost equally, a conventional Saint Joseph and a stage-brigand--a +brigand, as it might be, who had joined the Salvation Army. "As old as +I am," he returned, dreamily, to the affair of the morning, "I stepped +it away with them!" + +He turned his eyes from Christian's face to the large and sliding +brightness of the river. + +There followed a moment of silence that was filled by the yelps of the +little dogs who had marked a water-rat to ground, and the +hobble-de-hoy shouts of the hound puppies, uttered with no definite +idea of the cause of their enthusiasm, but none the less enthusiastic +for that reason. + +"Are you the youngest young lady, I beg your pardon?" Peter Callaghan +asked presently. "It's long since I seen you. Your father knows me +well. I remember of one time when the hounds was crossing my land, and +I seen yourself and your sisther taking the hur'ls. I cries out to ye +'me heart'd rise at ye, my darlins!' and the Major, he laughs!" + +"I remember jumping the hurdles," said Christian; "I'll tell my father +I met you." + +"He gave me permission to cut the 'looha' in these fields," resumed +Peter Callaghan. "I'm thankful to him. I have a good sop of it cut." + +He waved a hand; Christian saw, at a little distance, a heap of +rushes, and, seated on it, a girl, of whose presence she had been +unaware. She was very pale, and there was a fixity of sadness about +her. Christian spoke to her, but she did not appear to notice. + +"She's my daughter," said Peter Callaghan in his quiet voice. "She +wouldn't know it was to her you spoke. She's dark, the creature. +Blinded she is. She's not long that way." + +"How did it happen?" said Christian, in a low voice. + +"You could not say," said Peter Callaghan; his dreamy eyes roved again +over the broad river; "God left a hand on her," he said. + +Christian went on her way, and the words stayed with her. "God left a +hand on her." There had been no resentment in the father's voice, only +a profound and noble gravity. + +"And here am I," thought Christian, "angry and whimpering--" + +Mrs. James Barry lived a mile or so farther down the river. Christian +gathered up her pack of terriers, hound puppies, and red setters, with +the farm collie to complete its absurdity, and walked fast. October +was just ending; the willows along the river-bank were yellow, the +reeds in the ditches that ran beneath each fence were greying and +withering. The successive profiles of wood and hill, down the valley +of the river went from orange and brown to a reddish purple, until, in +the large serenity of the autumn evening, they softened to the +universal blue of distance. + +Mrs. Barry's farm-house stood a little back from the river. A stream +that widened to a pond, and narrowed again to a stream, divided the +house from the fields that ran between it and the river; the decent +thatched roofs and whitewashed walls of the farm, and the elm trees +that grew beside it, were mirrored in the pond. A flotilla of geese +and ducks paraded, in stately fatuity, to and fro across the mirror. A +battered little wooden bridge, painted green, enabled the people of +the farm to reach the banks of the river. Christian crossed it, and +went up to the open door of the house. + +In the kitchen a red-haired woman was seated, rocking a wooden cradle +with her foot while she stitched at a child's frock. Hens, with their +alert and affected reserve of manner, stepped in and out of the +doorway, sometimes slowly, with poised claw, sometimes headlong, with +greedy speed. Christian watched them and the hound puppies (in whose +power of resistance to temptation she had no confidence), while she +talked to the woman of the house, and heard the story of her trouble. + +Her husband had been "above in the hospital at Riverstown. He was in +it with a fortnight," said the red-haired woman in the idiom of her +district, the noise of the rocker of the cradle on the earthen floor +beating through her words; "he had a bunch, like, undher his chin, and +they were to cut it." She paused, and the wooden bump of the cradle +filled the pause. + +"When they had it cut, he rose up on the table, and all his blood went +from him; only one little tint, I suppose, stopped in him. Afther a +while, the nurse seen the life creeping back in him. 'We have him +yet!' says she to the Docthor. 'I thought he was gone from us!' says +the Docthor." The voice ceased again. The speaker slashed the frock in +her hand at an over-bold hen, who had skipped on to the table beside +her and was pecking hard and sharp at some food on a plate. + +"They sent him home then. We thought he was cured entirely. He pulled +out the summer, but he had that langersome way with him through all." + +She was silent a moment, then she looked at Christian, with grief, +crowned and omnipotent, on her tragic brow. + +"As long as he was alive, I had courage in spite of all, but when I +thinks now of them days, and the courage I had, it goes through me!" +Her red-brown eyes stared through the open door at the path twisting +across the field to the high road. + +"Ye'll never see him on that road again, and when I looks up it me +heart gets dark. Sure, now when he's gone, I thinks often, if he'd be +lyin' par'lysed above in the bed, I'd be runnin' about happy!" + +When Christian went home Mrs. Barry walked with her to the little +green bridge, and stood there until her visitor reached the bend of +the river where the path passed from her sight. + +At the turning Christian looked back and saw the lonely figure +standing at the bridge-head, and again she said to herself: "Here am +I, angry and whimpering!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + + +Doctor Mangan told himself that he had never laid out a ten-pound note +to better advantage than the one he had pushed into the heel of +Tishy's fist. It had, as he thought it would, clinched the matter. He +had never been unaware of the menace of Cloherty, R.A.M.C., but he was +confident in the three forces that he had at his command--authority, +bribery, and propinquity. + +"If I know my young lady," he said cheerfully to himself, "she'll +think more of Larry at her elbow, than of that foxy devil back at +Riverstown" (which was the present scene of Captain Cloherty's +professional labours). "And what's more, if Tishy will only give her +mind to it, it'll take a stiffer lad than Master Larry to be man +enough for her! She downed him once, and she'll do it again, in spite +of Christian Lowry!" + +Even as the Big Doctor thought, there were many more that fought for +him in this matter than against him. Potent had been his suggestion to +his daughter that there wasn't a girl in Cluhir that wouldn't "be +gibeing at her" if she lost so golden an opportunity, nor one that +would believe she had not half hanged herself to secure it. (And +though it has not been possible to include them in this chronicle, it +may be accepted that there were many girls in Cluhir of the lively +malevolence of whose gibes Tishy was entirely sensible.) Even more +potent was the pull of Larry's position, the _prestige_ of his +money, of his "place," of his good looks; most potent of all, the fact +of his nearness, the mere primary fact that he was a young man, in +whose company she was daily thrown, whose unattached status (the +Doctor had kept his own counsel as to that interview with Christian, +and his deductions therefrom) was a continual challenge to her charms, +whose mere presence was an excitement an a stimulus. + +As the polling day approached, and effort became more strenuous, Larry +fell ever more gratefully into the habit of No. 6, The Mall. Of coming +in, in the gloom of the wet afternoon, and finding Tishy mending her +gloves, or stitching something all lace and ribbons, something that +would obviously blossom into a "Sunday blouse," but that, with flash +of her grey eyes, she would tell him was "poor-clothes,' that the Nuns +had asked her to make. Of sitting on the big sofa beside her, and +teasing her about Captain Cloherty and the adventure in which Tinker +took a leading part. + +"If you go telling tales to the Doctor, you'll be sorry!" + +"How can you make me sorry?" + +"Wait awhile and you'll find out! There are plenty ways to teach +little boys manners! Oh, look now what you've done! You've made me +pull the thread out o' me needle. Thread it now, you!" + +Then Larry, with his quick eye and steady hand, would annoy her by +threading it as deftly as she herself could have done, would possibly +contribute some enormous stitches to the confection, and, by the time +its construction was seriously resumed, the collaborators on the big +sofa would have advanced a stage further on the road through the +jungle, that had, with so much foresight and patience, been prepared +for them. + +Young Mr. Coppinger's hopes and fears as to his prospects of becoming +a Member of Parliament varied no more than was suitable in the +possessor of the artistic temperament, but Barty, his agent in chief, +maintained an attitude of unbroken pessimism. That whisper of the +secret and late-declared antagonism of the Church had reached him, and +in the secure seclusion of his own office he inveighed against +clerical interference with all the fierceness of a dog chained in his +kennel, who knows that his adversaries are as unable to touch him as +he is to injure them. Only, in Barry's case, he was quite sure that +his barkings were unheard, and he would have been exceedingly alarmed +had he thought otherwise. + +"I declare to God I don't care what way it goes!" Larry had said many +times, but most often when fatigue and discouragement had together +taken control. + +Such times had come more often during the last week Before the +election, and they reached their climax on the evening of the polling +day. The two young men, mentally and physically demoralised by +fatigue, had at length, at an hour considerably past midnight, escaped +from their colleagues, and, having gained the sanctuary of Barty's +office, were drearily reviewing the position by the light of a smoky +lamp and over the ashes of a dead fire; counting possible votes, +making unconvincing calculations based on supposition, wading +hand-in-hand ever deeper into the Slough of Despond. + +"I was talking to your father this evening," said Larry, lighting a +cigarette and letting himself fall into an ancient rocking-chair. "He +wouldn't give me an opinion one way or the other, but it's my belief +he thinks it's a bad chance." + +"I believe he's done his best for you," said Barty, dubiously; "but +the way he's situated, he doesn't like to come out too strong one way +or the other." + +"Quite right too; I'm a rotten proposition," said Larry, "and this +dam' cigarette won't draw!" + +"I could stand getting licked," went on Barty, too preoccupied to +consider the plaints of his principal, "if I thought the Clergy had +played fair. Father Hogan and Father Sweeney stood to us well, and I +know Father Greer was for you at the first go-off; but God knows what +way he and the rest o' them went, after. I wouldn't trust them--" +His dark and mournful eyes rested dejectedly upon Larry. "And what's +more, they don't trust you!" + +"They're perfectly right," said Larry; "shows their sense! You and I +are what Father Greer and the rest of them would consider rotten bad +Catholics, and I believe they know it!" He got up from the limping old +rocking-chair and stretched himself, with a yawn that prolonged itself +into a howl. "Oh Dark Rosaleen!--or Kathleen-ni-Houlihan--or anything +else you like to call yourself--if you only knew how really and +sincerely devoted I am to you! I believe I'm a perfectly single-minded +Irish patriot, and ye you won't believe in me, and no more will any +one else except this bloody old fool of a Barty here! Barry my hearty, +I'm going to bed! I'm done! Don't wake me till the news comes in--" +He gave vent to another heart-broken yawn. + +"Well, for God's sake stop howling like a banshee, and go!" replied +the hard-pressed Barty, "I'm about done myself!" + +The opening Meet of the Broadwater Vale Hounds chanced to take place +at Cluhir Bridge, on the day after the election. Larry, finishing a +late breakfast at Hallinan's Hotel, heard the beloved sounds of the +hunt, the pistol-cracks of the whips, the clatter of horse-hoofs, the +jingle of bits, and the steady paddling of hounds' feet in the muddy +street. Joined with these was the clamour of the town curs and the +thunder of the following rush of town boys along Cluhir's narrow +pavements. Larry ran to the window, and opening it, found himself +practically face to face with young Georgy Talbot-Lowry, riding a +horse of Bill Kirby's. + +The sight of the hounds drove from his mind the resolve to have no +dealings more with the house of Talbot-Lowry. + +"Hullo, Georgy!" he shouted: "I didn't know you were home--" + +Georgy gave a quick look at the window, and directed his gaze between +his horse's ears; save that his face had turned as red as his coat, +there was nothing, as he jogged on, to indicate that he had either +seen or heard. + +Larry banged down the window, in a state of conflagration, every +strained nerve vibrating. What need to attempt to recount what he said +or thought? Dark Rosaleen has made trouble often enough between nearer +and dearer than Larry and his young cousin. She will send brothers to +fight each other to the changing music of her harp, crowned and +uncrowned; she will gather her sons under the sign of the Cross, and +encourage them to hate one another for the love of God. This was only +a trivial bit of mischief hardly worthy of our attention, were it not +that it had its share in the macadamising of that jungle road in +which, as is frequent in such routes, the preliminary labour had been +undertaken by an elephant, under the direction of a skilful mahout. + +It was dark when the news came to Cluhir, six o'clock of a wet night. +The counting of the votes had taken place elsewhere, and the word was +to come by wire. Barty and Larry, with others of the rival +"Commy-tees," had hung about between the post-office, and their +respective offices, and houses of call, all day. Many drinks had been +drunk, many bets been laid; before the news came through, Larry's +proclaimed indifference as to the result had worn so thin as to be +imperceptible. It seemed to him, during the tedious hours of that dark +and wet afternoon, that success in this enterprise was the only thing +left in life worth having. To triumph, secretly, over that secret +clerical opposition, to snap his fingers, openly, at Georgy +Talbot-Lowry's impudence and all that it implied of hostility and +contempt. These were the great objects of life, the things that +justified all the double dealing, and the lies, and the humbug of the +past weeks. There was no such thing as patriotism, and ideals were +rot. He had claimed last night to be a single-minded patriot, but +to-day he knew better; he had become a man, and had put ideals away, +with love, and other childish things. The main thing was to have your +desire of your enemy. + +He was standing in the heavy downpour on the outskirts of the group +that waited outside the post-office; he was sick with suspense and +fatigue, and hardly troubled to move as a motor came slowly nosing its +way through the crowd. It passed within a few inches of him and +stopped. He heard the Big Doctor's voice. + +"Get into the car out of the rain," it commanded. "D'ye want to be ill +on my hands again? I'll run you down to No. 6. Let Barty 'phone the +news to you. Isn't that what he's for?" + +Larry was alone in the dining-room of No. 6 when the telephone +summoned him. He had eaten nothing since breakfast; his hand shook +with cold and excitement, and he could scarcely hold the switch +firmly. + +"Burke, 1047; Coppinger, 705;" Barty's voice sounded flat and without +emotion. "Majority against us, 342. Can you hear? Adverse majority, +342! They've beaten us to babby-rags!" The voice ceased. + +Larry said: "All right, old chap. Thanks!" and hung up the receiver. + +He returned to the dirty, comfortable old sofa by the fire. + +Beaten! and Larry was used to victory. In all his twenty-five years of +life, he had never been thwarted. What he wished to do, that he did, +in games, in sport, in art. He might have said, with Beatrice: "There +was a star danced, and under that was I born!" + +The first defeat he could remember was the one he had suffered at +Christian's hands, and here he was, turned down again, twice in a +month! + +"My luck's out!" he said, staring at the flickering, whispering fire, +and feeling that ebbing of life which will befall, even at five and +twenty, when exhaustion, that has been held at bay by excitement and +hope, comes to its own. + +The door burst open, and Tishy came swiftly into the room. + +"I've just heard!" she said. "Dad got it on the other 'phone. It's a +wicked shame and a disgrace! That's what it is!" Her voice was hot +with wrath and sympathy; she flung across the room and caught Larry's +hand and shook it vehemently. "The fools!" she cried, furiously. "You +were too good for them, that's what it was! The dirty, low, +common--Oh, there's no words bad enough for them!" Her eyes blazed; +she looked exceedingly handsome. She was moved by a perfectly genuine +emotion of indignation; Larry was Mangan property, and it was not +fitting that the leading family of Cluhir should be defeated. + +"You look half dead this minute!" she cried, pushing him down on to +the sofa by the hand that she had taken. "Sit down for gracious sake!" + +Again the door opened, and from without the Doctor's deep voice said: + +"Tishy! Come here a minute, I want you." + +Larry, sitting on the sofa, watching his wet boots steaming, was +conscious of a sense of consolation. It was something to know that +these kind people cared. He heard the light chink of glasses, and +looked round, and saw Tishy coming into the room, bearing a tray, on +which were a cake, and wineglasses, and a bottle of champagne. + +"Dad says he prescribes a little stimulant!" said Tishy, gaily, "the +wire's cut--" + +She took the cork out of the bottle with a strong, capable hand, and +filled two glasses. "Drink that at once now! And I'll drink one drop +myself--just for luck! Here now! Here's to the next time, and you at +the top of the poll!" + +"Sounds as if I were a bear!" said Larry, with a pale smile at her, as +he lifted the glass, "Clink!" He touched her glass, and then drank the +wine thirstily. + +"I was just about cooked," he said apologetically. "Awfully good of +you and the Doctor--" + +"Ah, don't be talking nonsense!" interrupted Tishy. "Here, show me +your glass--" + +The glasses were very large and old fashioned; she refilled his, +brimmingly. "Now, sit down, and drink that, and eat a bit of cake. Not +a word out of you now! Only do as you're told!" + +Then, as he obeyed her, she suddenly knelt beside him, and before he +realised what she was doing she began to unlace his boots. Larry +started up, horrified and protesting. + +"Sit down at once and be good!" said Tishy, holding firmly to the foot +on which she had begun operations, and with a vigorous jerk compelling +him to obedience. "I'll do what I choose, I always do!" + +Her nimble, white fingers made short work of the task that she had set +herself; Larry's remonstrances availed him nothing. She had insisted +on refilling his glass a third time, and the wine had begun to take +away from him the feeling of reality, and to make everything seem hazy +and indefinite, but quite agreeable. + +"There now!" said Tishy, pushing the boots under the sofa, "aren't you +obliged to me? I often did that for the Doctor, but I never saw such +lovely green silk socks on _him_, I can tell you!" + +The champagne had made her eyes very bright; there was a look in them +that spoke to a dim memory in Larry's cloudy mind. She was still +kneeling beside him, and as she prepared to rise, she rested one hand +on his knee to help herself. Larry put his hand on hers, and leaned +forward. Her brilliant, challenging face was very near his. His memory +cleared in a flash, and he thought of the night, long ago, when they +had played at forfeits. + +"'My shoe buckle or my lips'? Do you remember?" he said, with an +unsteady laugh, answering the challenge. "It's my turn now--which will +you have?" + +He did not wait for an answer, but looking straight into her eyes, he +bent down and kissed her laughing, red lips. + +The situation had not materially changed when Dr. Mangan's large +presence was suddenly developed at the end of the sofa. He had come +noiselessly in, and was surveying his daughter and guest with a +benedictory smile. + +"So that's the way, is it?" he said quietly. + +The hot dream that held Larry, melted and reeled a little. He released +Tishy from his enfolding arms, and wondered if he had better risk +standing up. He wished old Mangan hadn't come bothering in. He had +only just begun to find out how much he liked Tishy. + +But he stood up, and met the Doctor's smile with a guilty and foolish +grin, holding on with one hand to the end of the sofa. Tishy continued +to hold his other hand; he felt as if he should fall if she +relinquished it. + +"Well, I suppose I may draw my own conclusions from what I see?" went +on the Big Doctor, in a voice that oozed fatherliness at every +syllable. "Eh, Larry?" + +Larry swayed a little; his yellow hair was ruffled, his blue eyes +shone, he looked like a child who had just been awakened. + +"Oh quite so, sir," he said, laughing. "Apparently it's the only thing +to do!" which was indisputable. + +The bottle of champagne which had played its part so ably was finished +later on, and the engagement was ratified and celebrated with the pomp +that was its due. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + + +Miss Letitia Mangan was a young woman of dauntless courage, who, as +has been said of the sect spoken of by detractors as The Black +Prozbytarians, feared neither God nor divil. To this rule there were, +however, in Tishy's case, two exceptions admitted, and of these, one +was her father, the other Father Greer. If, therefore, during the days +that followed, when the streets of Cluhir were, as it were, mined with +congratulations that exploded round her wherever and whenever she went +abroad, any shade of doubt, any tenuous memory of the foxy devil back +in Riverstown assailed her, she made haste to banish such with the +thoughts of Father Greer's pontifical approval, and of the warmth of +the paternal sunshine that now shone upon her and her _fiance_. + +Cluhir said that it was a very nice engagement, and a great match; +there were not wanting those who said also that it was wonderful +promotion for that Tishy Mangan. A tactless ex-charwoman had even +referred to young Mr. Coppinger as being Miss Mangan's "up-raiser," +and having enquired, with incredulity, of Mrs. Mangan ("and this +before a crowd in Egan's shop, if you please!" as Mrs. Mangan +reported) "Ma'am! are they in bonds?" she had so fervently thanked God +on hearing that such was the case, that Mrs. Mangan said she could +never enter Egan's again without she'd feel they were all laughing at +her! + +Of the _fiance_ and of his frame of mind, what shall be said? He, +at all events, said as little to himself as was possible, but, in the +circumstances, it was no more than could be expected that a lively +fancy would not wholly be denied, and that occasional vagrant visions +would present themselves uninvited. He pictured to himself a meeting +with Christian, all in the clouds, of course; he told himself he had +no wish to meet her, nor, if he did, was he at all likely to discuss +the matter with her; still he thought that he would rather enjoy +telling her that he had acknowledged his engagement with Tishy, to +Tishy's father, in the very same words in which she, Christian, had +broken hers with him. They had somehow stuck in his head. He would +tell her that. He had certainly been rather screwed (but that there +would be no necessity to mention); it was just a curious chance that +he should have used them. He dramatised the interview in his mind. It +would serve Christian right; it would be a rather jolly instance of +retributive justice--only he wished that the Christian whom he +visualised was not always that shadowed, ethereal Christian whom he +had painted, with, as Rossetti said, the wonder not yet quite gone +from that still look of hers. Bother Rossetti, anyway! What did it +matter what he said? The main point was what Larry himself had said, +and the result was that he was engaged to Tishy Mangan, solidly and +seriously. + +There was nothing fatiguingly ethereal about Tishy anyhow; she was +just about as good-looking a girl as he had ever met in his life. He +would take her to Paris some day, and would see what his pals would +say to her. He thought there wouldn't be two opinions about her there. +He and she would travel about a bit. He didn't feel as if he would +care about settling down at Coppinger's Court at once. Anyhow he would +have to fix up about Aunt Freddy. She hadn't written him much of a +letter about his engagement; she seemed to like it just about as well +as she had liked his excursion into politics. + +"Of course Tishy's a Papist!" he thought, mockingly, accounting to +himself for the chill of the congratulations. "That's enough for Aunt +Freddy! But, hang it all, so am I! She ought to see how suitable it +is! I'd like to lay on Father Greer to talk to her!" + +There is no need to attempt to record in detail the comments of the +wider circle of Larry's acquaintances, but it may be said that his +friends of all ranks had one point in common, a sincere admiration for +Dr. Mangan. Bill Kirby, who had supported him politically, now fell +away from him. Judith had not refrained from admitting him to the +secret which she had extracted from her younger sister, and Bill's +references to young Mr. Coppinger and to Doctor, Mrs., and Miss +Mangan, would have been very helpful to those ladies, of whom there +were many, who took the matter to heart. + +The unpopularity of the engagement was considerably aggravated by the +extreme magnificence of the furs, presented by the bridegroom elect to +his _fiancee_, and worn by her at a meet of the hounds, which she +attended in her father's motor. + +It might have been some consolation to the neighbourhood had it known +that those grey furs had been of the nature of a peace-offering, after +a rather acute difference of opinion on that point of settling down at +Coppinger's Court as opposed to going abroad. Larry had shelved it for +the present, and had, as he told himself, made good by the dint of the +furs. That had come out all right, but now, Larry, mounted on Joker, +and led in chains at Tishy's motor-wheel, found that among his former +allies of the hunt things were not as they once had been, and was not +pleased. Singularly enough, Judith alone was faithful found among the +faithless. She declared that Larry had been brutally and idiotically +treated, and that this engagement was the result, and justified all +that she had been saying for many past ages. When Larry appeared at +the Meet, his scalp-lock prominent among Miss Mangan's furs, Judith +alone of his former intimates met him with cordiality, condoled with +him over his election defeat with sympathy, and congratulated him on +his engagement with decorum. + +"I felt it was only decent," she said later, to the friend to whom she +complacently recounted her effort, "after he had been kicked +downstairs by Papa, and booted out of the house by Christian, quite +without justification. I congratulated him warmly! I absolutely rode +up to the gorgeous Tishy and said civil things there too!" + +"It was perfectly angelic of you!" said the friend. + +"Quite the reverse, my dear!" said Judith, proudly. "But you see Bill +has the hounds, and anyhow, I like to prepare for all contingencies!" + +For the rest, a chilly neutrality reigned at the Meet. Larry was +finding his official position of captive decidedly irksome. He wished +that Tishy would not call him by his name every time she spoke to him; +that she would not speak so loud; that this eternal jog to the covert +would end before the Day of Judgment; finally, that he had stayed at +home. He saw the red-headed Cloherty, and, failing more congenial +society, joined him. But the red-headed Cloherty was crosser than any +of them, and what the devil was it to him what Larry's politics or his +matrimonial intentions were? Confound Cloherty, anyway! He was a +sufficiently common object of the Cluhir scene--and infernally common +at that. Hardly a day that you didn't meet him loafing about the town. +Larry hadn't the smallest wish to talk to Cloherty. When, some brief +time before the Day of Judgment, they reached the covert, it was drawn +blank, and Bill Kirby took quite a month to get the hounds out. +Hunting rabbits, of course. Larry never knew them so out of hand. And +then another rotten jog along the road to the next draw. Why on earth +couldn't Bill get into the country and let them have a school at +least, and get away from these damned motors? He was hoarse from +shouting replies to Tishy's airy nothings, all winged with his name, +and all, he felt, addressed as much to the public as to him. She +looked stunning, of course, and he was glad he had given her those +furs, but three miles trying to keep a suspicious fool of a horse up +to the elbow of a car roaring along at half speed, was--! + +It matters not what Larry thought it was, the point is that Tishy +thought it wasn't, and, suddenly realising his views, turned in one of +those instantaneous furies of hers, to the cavalier at the other elbow +of the car, who happened to be the red-headed Cloherty. + +Larry, neglected, fell back, and presently found himself beside an old +friend, Father David Hogan, the priest of Riverstown. It was nearly +ten years since the great days of Father David's black mare; she had +passed into legend, and Father David, something heavier than he was +but no less keen, now followed hounds in more leisurely fashion on the +back of the black mare's son, a portly and careful bay cob. + +"I'm very pleased to see you out, Mr. Coppinger," Father David began, +the kindly little blue eyes twinkling deep in his red face, confirming +the assurance imparted by his extensive smile, that his friendship was +still unshaken, "You've been missing some nice hunts." + +"I've been too hard worked to get out, Father," apologised Larry. + +"Ah, otherwise engaged, maybe?" said Father David, with a facetious +stress on the word engaged. "I was greatly put out over the election," +he continued. "Tell me now, why didn't the Unionists support you? I +noticed that our worthy M.F.H. came to record his vote, but your +cousin, the late M.F.H., was, as they say, conspicuous by his +absence." + +"He's quite an invalid now," said Larry shortly. + +"Indeed? Indeed? And is that the case? I'm grieved to hear it!" Father +David pressed the stout cob nearer to Joker, and murmured very +confidentially. "I've known you since your boyhood I may say, Mr. +Coppinger, and you will not consider me impertinent speaking to you. +But could you tell me is it a fact what I'm 'hearing about the good +Major--you, no doubt, have prior information--" + +"I think that's very unlikely," said Larry, sulkily, flushing as he +spoke. + +Father David eyed Larry cautiously, and began to wonder if something +he had been told not long since were true. + +In Ireland, it may confidently be said, all things are known to the +poor people, and a brief consideration of this position will show, +that this being so, there is but little that is unknown to the Church. + +"Well, Mr. Coppinger," Father Hogan resumed, "I'm told--only told, +mind you--that the Major had Mount Music and the demesne advertised on +the English papers--" + +"Good God!" exclaimed Larry, startled out of his sulk; "to sell?" + +Father David, like other gentlemen of his age and cloth, had the +Baboo's predilection for a well-worn quotation. "As to that I cannot +say," he said portentously. "''Tis whispered in Heaven, 'tis muttered +in Hell' that the encumbrances are very heavy--mortgages and +debts--. The good Major had a long family, Mr. Coppinger; fine, +dashing young min they are too, but we all know that expenses do not +tend to diminish as families grow up! Children may be a heritage that +comes from the Lord, but unless other heritages accompany them--!" +Father David put his head on one side, and, beaming at Larry, laid his +little professional joke, so to speak, at his feet. + +"Well, well," he resumed, "'What business is it of yours?' says you!" + +"Not at all, Father," said Larry, still shaken by what he had heard. +"Thank you for speaking to me--it's the first I've heard of it." + +The procession of the hunt halted, the hounds left the road by the +direct method of a high stone "gap," and Father David and the bay cob +melted away to betake themselves to those secret equivalent routes +known to those who have come to years of discretion in the +hunting-field. + +The second draw seemed at first as if it were to be no more fortunate +than its predecessor. The covert was a patch of scrubby woodland at a +little distance below the road, at the head of one of the long deep +glens that were the terrors of the Broadwater country. The wind blew +from the west, across the wide cleft of Gloun Kieraun, and the hounds +were thrown into the wood in which the upper end of the glen was +masked, and were encouraged to work downwards. An unaccustomed wave of +misanthropy had assailed Larry, and instead of following with the +crowd the course of the hounds, he moved onwards along the road, +scarcely considering where he was going. He was thinking with +consternation of what Father Hogan had told him. Larry was not of +those who nurse their wrath to keep it warm, and the thought of Dick's +misfortunes swept away the recollection of his insults. Joker had, of +his own initiative, soon turned aside from the high road into a grassy +lane, and he moved along it in the relentless manner in which many +horses will decline to stand still while Larry, deep in thought, +allowed the reins to lie on the horse's neck while he lit a cigarette +and tried to fix in his memory Father David's exact words. He thought +he would talk to Dr. Mangan about it. Things might be better than the +old priest thought. From the thought of the doctor his mind passed on +to that of his wedding. Was it possible that he was to be married next +week? A distinct physical drop of the heart accompanied the +realisation. "Nerves!" he told himself, and hurried on to reflect upon +his bride. She certainly looked stunning in those grey furs; he was +glad he had given them to her; she knocked spots off any other girl in +the country. He impressed this thought on his mind. And she had sung +jolly well last night, and had accompanied him quite decently. They +would get on all right once they were married. She had been a bit +edgey these last few days, but--some under-self warned him off the +pursuit of this topic. He began to formulate excuses for her that +inculpated himself. Larry "came of a gentle kind," and had the +generous temper that finds it easier to bear than to ascribe blame. + +A note of the horn was wafted sweetly across the glen, and he came to +the surface of his thoughts. By Jove! Where had Joker got him to? The +lane they had wandered down ran parallel with Gloun Kieraun, and a gap +in the fence on his left made him aware that he was now moving abreast +with the hunt, but was divided from his fellows by the chasm of the +glen. + +A second touch of the horn came; Larry checked his horse; Bill Kirby +had seen him and was shouting to him. + +"Head him back if he breaks your side! I want him his way!" + +All jolly fine for old Bill, but where did young Mr. Coppinger come +in? He held up his hand to show he had heard, and stood still. + +One hound spoke, sharply, in the depths of the woody glen. Another and +another joined in. In a moment, the echoing glen was full of voices; +it was impossible to tell what was happening. A couple and a half +emerged on the farther side in the heather above the trees, working a +line upwards, and speaking to it as they went. Larry saw the Master +force his horse down near them, and heard him cheering them and +doubling his horn. Another couple joined them, and Larry swore +heartily. Here he was on the wrong side, and the fox away to the east! +The cry redoubled; it sounded as if twice the pack were engaged, yet +the two and a half couple were not being reinforced. By some chance +Larry withdrew his eyes from them, and just then, about a hundred +yards further on, on his side of the glen, something like a brown +feather floated up into view. + +"A second fox, by the living Jingo!" whispered Larry, thrilling to +that sight that never fails to thrill. + +He held up his hat. Bill saw the signal, and acknowledged it by +redoubled efforts to get the hounds away with the fox that had broken +to the east. The chorus of sound grew and grew, and as Joker and his +rider, tense with an equal excitement, listened, it became plain that +the cry was drawing nearer to them. Joker's sensitive ears were +twitching, his heart thumped; the storm of sound was just below them +now, and then, hound by hound, Larry counted them as they came, +fourteen couples struggled up over the lip of the glen where that +brown feather had so lightly lifted into view, and drove ahead, on the +way it had gone, with a rush and a cry that Larry could no more have +checked than he could have stemmed and driven back the wild stream in +the glen below. + +It may be said at once that he made no such futile effort. With a +single glance at the frenzied party on the farther side, already +galloping distractedly for a possible pass lower down the glen, Larry +released his feelings in a maniac howl to the fleeting pack, and let +Joker--who had already stood up on his hind legs twice, in legitimate +protest--follow them. + +The fox, having begun by running west, away from the glen, had then +turned right-handed, and was heading north over the mountain whose +lower slopes were cleft by Gloun Kieraun. The scent served well; the +gurgling music with now and then a sharper note, like a fife among +flutes and 'cellos, flowed on, and Larry and Joker, two happy +creatures, the world forgetting (though by no means by their world +forgot) galloped and rejoiced. + +The little mountain sheep with their black, speckled faces sprang +before them, quick as rabbits; green plover flopped up from the grassy +places, wheeling and squealing; a woodcock whirred out of a furze bush +so near Larry that he could have struck it down with his crop. +Long-legged mountain hares fled right and left of the driving pack, +unheeded. Great spaces of the mountain were bare of fences, but in +those tracts where the grass had mastered the heather, it was +"striped" with broad banks, sound, and springy, and bound, as with +wire, by the heather roots. To feel Joker quicken his big stride and +leap at the banks out of his gallop, to realise the perfect precision +of his method, as he changed feet and flicked off into the next field, +to race him at the walls of smooth round stones, weathered in the long +centuries, and grey with lichen, and to know that if they were three +times their height Joker would have sailed over them with the same +ease--whatever might have been Larry's burden of care, it would have +fallen from him, forgotten, in the pure glory of that ride. + +The hounds ran hard for nearly a half hour before they checked, and +Larry bethought him of those unfortunates between whom and himself +that great gulf had been fixed. Apparently they had not found, any +more than the rich man in the parable, a means of crossing it. He was +high above the valley; the splendid landscape lay in broad undulating +ribbons of brown and green and amethyst and blue, with the Broadwater +dividing it--a silver belt, with a band of green on its either side; +but within the great circle that was spread beneath his eyes were none +of those toiling specks that tell of a Hunt in labour. The check was +brief; the hurrying hounds, busy as ants, cast themselves right and +left forward, combining in fussy groups, that would suddenly +disintegrate as if by an access of centrifugal force; crowding each +other jealously along the top of a bank, flopping into the patches of +bog, snuffing greedily at the orange stems of the bracken. Soon, +reiterated squeals from a leading lady told that the clue was found +again, and they began to run, hard as before, but downwards this time, +as though the fox despaired of finding refuge among the high places of +heather and rock. Larry had lost his bearings; his eyes on the hounds, +his thoughts on his horse, he had not even tried to place himself. But +as the hounds ran on, south and west, he began to recognise familiar +features. Away there to the south, surely were the trees of +Coppinger's Court; could it be the Mount Music earths for which the +fox was heading? The hounds were running now down hill, through crisp, +upland meadows. Farmhouses began to reappear, thatched and +whitewashed, tucked snugly in among low bunches of trees; fences were +changing in character; the amber streams ran less fiercely, and found +time to loiter in pools and quiet reaches. The hounds had begun to +hunt more slowly, and Larry looked at his watch. + +"Forty-five minutes since they left the glen! Bill's just about mad +enough for the asylum by this time!" he thought "If we could only +catch this lad!" + +But this particular "lad" was not to gratify young Mr. Coppinger by +dying, classically, in the open, "on the top of the ground." Five +minutes after Larry had taken the time he took it again, this time at +the mouth of one of many holes in a sandpit, wherein, as was announced +by a country boy, "the lad" had saved himself, with "the dogs snapping +at his tail." + +"He earned it well," said Larry, ungrudgingly, even though the mask +that was to have hung so carelessly from his saddle was panting deep +and safe in the sandpit, listening warily for a possible eviction +notice from the hunt-terrier (left, alas hunting rabbits in the heart +of Gloun Kieraun) thanking its own wits for the recollection of the +city of refuge. + +"Ye're on the lands of Finnahy now," said the boy. "Folly on that way +down, and ye'll meet the road. That's the near way." + +"Come on, you, and show it to me," said Larry. + +Amazing were the ramifications of the near way. The bed of a stream +had a share, and a well-trodden path along the wide top of a bank; a +brace of wheels had to be trundled out of one gap, a toothless harrow +dragged from another. Then they were on heather again. + +"Carry on now," said the guide, "and ye'll meet a pat--" + +Larry needed no more leading; he was on the hill above Mount Music, +Cnocan an Ceoil Sidhe, and the "pat" that was to meet him was the +narrow track that led by the Druid Stone and the Well of the Fairies. + +The December afternoon was darkening to its close; the sun had made +its farewell appearance, coming forth for a moment, a half-circle of +clear flame, above the long grey cloud that barred the head of the +valley. Larry rode past the great grey stone, and hardly turned his +eyes toward it. The hounds, trooping meekly round his horse, went +aside to the well, and drank long and thirstily. He did not wait for +them. He put from his mind the memory of the last time he had seen +from that hill-side the sun go down. Rather he set his thoughts, +resolutely, on that other last time, in the library of Mount Music. +And he called up Tishy's brilliant face, framed in the furs that he +had given her, that it might help him to drive away other memories. He +was very fond of Tishy, he told himself; anyway, he was booked to +marry her next week. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + + +The small town of Cluhir, ever avid, as are all small towns, of +sensation, was, did it only know it, about to enjoy a week that would +long be remembered in its history. Miss Mangan's marriage, which alone +would have made an epoch, was fixed for Thursday, December 12th; but +this, it need scarcely be said, was a matter that, though +soul-stirring, was devoid of the element of surprise. Not so, however, +was the sudden evacuation of Mount Music. Father Hogan's indefinite +information was as much as was generally known, but much that was not +generally known was confided to the discreet ears of Father Greer, and +he, almost alone of the inhabitants of Cluhir, was not surprised when +the news went abroad that the Mount Music carriage had conveyed Major +Dick and Lady Isabel to the station, and that so vast a mass of +luggage had accompanied them as to betoken a prolonged absence. + +That the news should, in the first instance, have been communicated to +Father Greer by Dr. Mangan, was not remarkable, since Dr. Mangan's +professional advice had usefully reinforced his unofficial advocacy of +the move, and Father Greer was rarely ignorant for long of matters +that were found interesting by the Big Doctor. + +Not merely for the sake of Major Talbot-Lowry's health had this +upheaval taken place; an even more imperious factor had been the state +of the family finances. The cloud of debt that had so long brooded +over Mount Music was lower and darker than ever it had been before. +Dick had at length been coerced into opening negotiations for the sale +of his property to his tenants, but although, in the fullness of time, +these might be expected to bear fruit, they were of no more immediate +assistance to this over-weighted survivor of a prehistoric species, +than is the suggestion to a horse to live in order that he may get +oats. + +There was pressure in the air over Mount Music. Tradesmen, whose +suffering had been as long as their bills, began to turn, in what had +seemed like the sleep of exhaustion, and to talk about solicitors' +letters. Even Dr. Mangan had surprised and pained his friend, the +Major, by forgetting his wonted delicate reticence, and hinting, with +what struck Dick as singularly doubtful taste, at a repayment of those +loans that he had volunteered, offering as an excuse for doing so the +expenses consequent on his daughter's marriage. In addition to these +irritations, Major Talbot-Lowry had received what he justly considered +to be very annoying letters from a firm of Dublin solicitors, in +connection with various charges and mortgages on the Mount Music +property, which so they, informed him, had been "acquired" by them for +"a client," and were now to be called in. Alternatively, it was +suggested, an arrangement might be proposed, whereby the house and +demesne of Mount Music might be accepted in settlement of the sums in +question. The firm had been in communication with another creditor, +Dr. Mangan of Cluhir, and it was hoped that all Major Talbot-Lowry's +liabilities might be arranged for by the method they suggested. + +Dick Talbot-Lowry received this announcement with the mixture of +indignation and contempt that might have been anticipated from an +old-established Pterodactyl, who has been warned that his hereditary +wallow in the Primeval Ooze is about to be wrested from him. Having +expressed these sentiments in suitable language, he said, lightly, +that Fairfax must raise as much on the property as would keep these +Dublin sharks quiet, and in the meantime he would shut up the house at +once and go to London. Temporary retrenchment was all that was +required. He would let the place. Some rich Englishman would jump at +the chance-- + +Major Dick had that optimism about his own affairs that is often +combined with a tranquil pessimism about the affairs of others. He +said that all he wanted was to get clear of the blood-sucking swarm of +hangers-on that infested the place. He wondered at his own folly in +having endured them for so long. And it would do Christian good to get +away. She had been looking rather pulled down--she missed the hunting, +of course. London would do her good--would be a change. + +This, approximately, was what Dick said. What Lady Isabel said, being +an attenuated echo of Dick's observations, is negligible. What +Christian said was known only to Rinka, the eldest of the fox +terriers, who had a habit of sitting in the chair at which Christian, +knelt to say her prayers, and would then, with her bland and balmy +smile, extort confidences denied to any other living creature. + +On Christian fell the brunt of the arrangements, the decisions, worst +of all, the dismissals. The house (pending the materialisation of the +Rich Englishman) was to be shut up, so also were all external +departments, with their workers, most of whom Christian had known from +her childhood; it was her hand that had to cut the knot of these old +friendships. Her father and mother had preceded her, and she was left, +alone in the big, old house, with old Evans, and his down-trodden old +wife, to be her ministers, with Rinka to be her companion, and with +the obliteration of her past life to be her task. + +An immense fire of logs and turf blazed in the hall fireplace, a +funeral pyre, on which Christian cast one basketful after another of +letters, papers, ball-cards, hunt cards, pamphlets, old school-room +books, stray numbers of magazines, all the accumulated rubbish that +life, like the leader in a paper-chase, strews in its trail; all +valueless, yet all steeped in the precious scent of past happiness, of +good times that were over and done with. She spent those short, dark +days in desolation and destruction, and Rinka trotted after her, up +and downstairs, in and out of the shuttered bedrooms, and the gaunt, +curtainless, carpetless rooms downstairs, wondering what it all +portended, vowing, in her little faithful, cunning heart, not to let +Christian out of her sight for a single instant. + +The darkness and shortness of the days was intensified by the +onslaught of a great storm; one of those giant overwhelmings when it +seems that the canopy of heaven is being crushed down upon one's own +little corner of this earth, and that all the winds and all the waters +of the universe are gathered beneath it to annihilate one +insignificant segment of the world. On Monday morning, Christian saw +her father and mother start, too agitated by their coming journey to +have a spare thought for sentiment; too much beset by the fear of what +they might lose, their keys, their sandwiches, their dressing-boxes, +to shed a tear for what they were losing, and had lost. And on Monday +afternoon with the early darkness the storm began. There came first a +little run of wind round the house, like a cavalry patrol spying out +the land. There followed complete stillness; then a few scattered +drops of rain fell, and ceased; and then, with a heavy, travelling +roar, the wind came rushing up the valley. It thundered in the +cavernous chimneys of Mount Music; it bawled and whooped at the +windows, and shook them with a human fury, as though it were life or +death to it to get in, as though it were maddened by the failure of +its surprise attack. Christian and her ancient servitors ran from room +to room, barring shutters, fastening doors, the draughts down the long +passages snatching at the candle flames, the old man and woman full of +forebodings and of reminiscences of former storms, that came to +Christian in broken scraps, through the rattle of windows and the +shaking clatter of doors within the house, and the shrieking rage of +the wind outside. She sat up late, sorting and arranging things in her +room. She had none of the fears that might, for another, have filled +the empty house with visitants from another world, and might have +taught her to listen for footsteps in the echoing passages and knocks +on the shaking doors. She had always lived on the borderland, and was +naturalised in both spheres, but to-night, the voices that had so +often given her help, were, when she most needed help, silent. + +"I have nothing left now," she said to herself, "but memories, +hungering memories--" + +She was to leave Mount Music on Wednesday, and on Thursday, Larry was +to be married to Tishy Mangan. What room was there for phantom fears +when these things were certainties? What spectre from the other world +has power to break a heart? + +Deep in the night there was a lull, a strange moment of arrest, that +endured for scarcely as long as that one could count ten, and then, +with the returning tempest, the rain that had been pent behind it, was +hurled upon the world. All that night, and all the following day, the +rain was like a wall about the house. It was flung in masses against +the windows, as buckets of water are flung on a deck. To look forth was +as though one looked through a dense sheet of moving ice. Gutters, +eave-shoots, tanks, overflowed. The sorely-tried roof was mastered, and +in all its angles and valleys yielded entrance to the enemy. Up in the +top story hurrying drips beat, like metronomes, all the _tempi_, from a +ponderous _adagio_ to a racing _prestissimo_. Buckets and jugs and +baths filled, and were emptied, and filled again, the old Evans pair +waddling to and fro, elated, almost gratified, by the magnitude of +their task. And in the middle of the uproar, late in the afternoon, a +new sound joined in the chorus of the storm, the coarse and ugly +summons of a motor-horn. Old Evans spied at the car through the hall +window, and contrived to signal a command to go round to the back of +the house. + +"If I let dhraw the bolts," he said to Barty Mangan at the kitchen +entrance, "the door would fall flat on me!" + +"I wouldn't be surprised at all," Barty replied. "Hardly I could force +the car into the storm." + +Christian was sitting on the floor by the fireplace in the hall, in +the last of the daylight, examining and burning the contents of a +drawer full of miscellaneous papers, as the visitor made his +unexpected entrance from the back, and Barty, recognising his own +improbability and unsuitability on such a day and at such a time, fell +to confused apologies that were as incoherent, and seemed as unlikely +ever to end, as the buzzing of an imprisoned bee on the window-pane. +The fact at length, however, emerged, that there was a map of the +Mount Music estate hanging in the library, and that the Major having +promised to lend it to Dr. Mangan, had forgotten to do so. + +"Some question of boundaries--a little grazing form m' fawther +has--" Barty said, nervously. + +The map was found, was rolled, and wrapped up, and yet Barty sat on. +He talked incessantly, feverishly. He talked so fast, in his low +voice, that, in the clamour of the storm, Christian could only +distinguish an occasional word. She had a nightmare feeling as if a +train were roaring through an endless tunnel, and that she and Barty +were the sole passengers, and would never see daylight or know quiet +again. His long, lean body was hooped into a very low and deep +armchair, his thin hands clasped his knees; his immense dark eyes, +fixed on Christian's face, gave her the impression that what he was +saying was without relation to what he was thinking. In the direful +gloom of the hall, with the rain and wind threshing on the +half-shuttered windows, and the inconstant light of the burning logs +the sole illuminant, his pale face, with the wing of black hair on his +forehead, looked like the face of a strayed occupant of another sphere +who had resumed such an aspect as he had worn in his coffin. + +"Ireland's a queer old place just now, Miss Christian," Barty hurried +on. "Everything's changing hands, and everyone's changing sides. You +don't know what'll happen next!" + +"I wish I were not changing sides too," said Christian, catching at a +sentence, in a momentary lull of the roaring in the chimney. "Sides of +the Channel, I mean--I prefer this side!" + +"Do you? Do you?" said Barty, intensely. "I'm glad you do! I feel +often as if no one cared for this miserable country except for what +they could get out of it! At the election it would have sickened you, +the bargaining, and the humbugging, and the lies. Larry was the only +man that ran straight, and they jockeyed him--" + +"I'm sure _you_ ran straight," said Christian, with sympathy in +her voice. Piercing her weariness and preoccupation was the feeling +that he had something to say that lay under this babble of +conversation. He was wrapping himself in a cloak of verbiage, but +above the cloak his tormented eyes met hers, and the pain in them hurt +her. + +"Me? Oh, I only ran after Larry. I thought it was a shabby thing of +the Unionists not to have supported him--" he stopped abruptly, +remembering Major Talbot-Lowry's abstention, remembering also the +feud, of which he knew only that he had never wholly divined its +origin, between Coppinger's Court and Mount Music. He cursed himself +for a fool. He had not meant to talk politics, but what he had come +through the storm to say was so difficult. He looked at Christian with +agony. Had she minded what he said about the Unionists? He began to +talk again, very fast and incoherently. + +"Miss Christian, I said awhile ago everything was changing in Ireland. +There's big changes coming, even hereabouts, things I couldn't believe +would ever happen. I've recently learned a--a fact--a statement that +I'm not at liberty to repeat. I was--I may say that I was shocked--but +Miss Christian--" the agony in his eyes was in his voice. "Oh! Miss +Christian, for God's sake, believe that I knew nothing of it till this +day!" + +He stood up, steadying himself with a hand on one of the high marble +pillars of the mantelpiece. + +"Knew nothing of what?" said Christian, thinking she had mistaken what +he had said. + +"I can't tell you--you'll know soon enough--only I'm just asking you +to believe that I had neither part nor lot in it!" + +Christian had risen, and was standing up; he came a step nearer. + +"I just want you to understand, Miss Christian, that in this world +there is no one I regard like you--no one, nor ever was, nor ever will +be--but don't mind that, I only want to say that if there is anything +in this earthly world that it's in my power to do for you, or that I +could help you in anny shape or form, you will be showing the kindness +and mercy of God if you will let me do it for you." + +He was trembling, and his voice shook, but his nervousness was gone. +"The kindness and mercy of God!" he said again. "I would feel it to be +that--oh, God! I would!" The tortured spirit in his eyes had given +place to another spirit, whose emotion Christian could neither mistake +nor respond to, yet its kinship with the immutable fidelity that was +in her heart made an appeal that she could not refuse. + +"Be sure I will ask you," she said, with the pity that her own +heart-loneliness had taught her in her voice. "I can't understand what +it is that you think may happen; it seems to me as if--" She broke +off, held by the thought that disaster could hardly have another arrow +in its quiver for her. "You may be sure if I think you can help me, I +will ask you. I know I could rely on you," she said, pushing back her +own trouble, meeting his wild eyes with hers, steadfast and +compassionate. + +"I'm more than thankful--grateful--you've only to speak--" he +stumbled and stammered with words that were all inadequate to his +feeling. "I won't detain you; I'm taking your time too long as it +is--and I'll have a job to get home too, the river's rising every +minute, and so is the storm--" He somehow talked himself out of the +room. + +Christian returned to her work of destruction. The situation in +general had not been made easier for her by Barty's tragic offer of +assistance in some mysterious and advancing stress, or by the +certainty that she tried to shake, but could not, of what his eyes had +said to her. + +But Barty, as he drove home through the storm, felt himself to be a +new man, consecrate and apart, ennobled by her promise to rely on him, +glorified by her look; and thanked God that, when the trouble came, +she would remember that he had had neither part nor lot in it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + + +The storm, and the preparations for the wedding, raged on with almost +equal violence, within and without the walls of No. 6, The Mall. From +the moment that daylight began on the fateful Wednesday, the day +before the wedding, and until it ceased, Mrs. Mangan's face recurred +at the window of the dining room, full of protest, primarily against +the arbiter of the weather, who had sent so supreme a hindrance to all +her preparations, secondarily, against the shops of Cluhir, whose +dilatoriness in matters of the highest importance "had her," so she +affirmed frequently, "that much distracted, that it would be a comfort +and a consolation to her if she were stretched cold in her grave." + +At intervals during the feverish day, beings would come rushing +through the torrents, like trout in a swirling brook, and would fling +themselves and their parcels in through the door that Mrs. Mangan was +generally ready to open for them. Frantic messages from bridesmaids +about their costumes, belated wedding presents, all the surf and foam +that is flung up by the waves of a wedding, broke upon No. 6. The +bride elect, pale and preoccupied, ("pale," that is to say, "for +Tishy," as one of her compeers observed, "flushed for any one else!") +wrote notes, and exhibited presents, and packed clothes, and rode the +tempest with a fortitude that was worthy of the Big Doctor's daughter. +But even Tishy began to fail as darkness drew in. + +"I can't stand this house any more," she said to her mother, "rain or +no rain, I'm going out! I didn't see Mrs. Whelply about Kathleen's" +wreath that she wrote about--" + +"You'll be drowned," said Mrs. Mangan, doomfully; "and sure if Larry +comes over, what'll I say to him?" + +"_He'll_ not come!" said Tishy, scornfully. "What a fool he is, a +day like this!" + +"And they say the river's up in the houses down at the end of the +town," went on Mrs. Mangan. "In the name of pity why wouldn't you be +satisfied to stay at home for this once, and you leaving me for good +to-morrow!" + +"Well, I'll die if I stay in this messed-up hole any longer!" said +Tishy. "I don't care how wet I get--" + +Presently the front door slammed behind her; her mother said to +herself that of all the headstrong pieces--! And, further, that she +trusted in God Larry Coppinger would be able to make a hand of her; +she then, with the resignation that experience teaches to defeated +mothers, went to the kitchen, and prepared a tray with tea, and +carried it herself up to the Doctor's surgery. + +"Francis, may I come in? I have tea for you and meself." + +"Come in to be sure," replied Francis, hospitably. "I'll be glad of a +cup. Wait and I'll light the gas." + +The Big Doctor was a faithful man, and loved his wife. He treated her +as a slave, but it was thus that she not only expected, but preferred +to be treated, and the position of a favourite slave may not be +without its compensations. He established her in the Patients' chair, +arranging it so that the crude flare of the incandescent gas should +not be in her eyes, and then sat down in his own huge chair, in +comfortable proximity to her and the tea-tray. + +"Well, Annie, me girl," he said. "You're looking tired enough, but +there isn't one will touch you in looks to-morrow for all that! Your +own daughter included!" + +"Go on out of that, Francis, with your nonsense!" replied Mrs. Mangan, +with a coquettish slap on the Doctor's great round knee, "you ought to +be learning sense for yourself by this time!" + +"Maybe I'm not so wanting in sense as you might think, Annie!" he +answered, his watchful, grey-blue eyes under the over-hanging, musical +brows, softening as he looked at her. I think one way and another, I +haven't made altogether such a bad fist of things!" + +"Darling lovey!" cried Mrs. Mangan, adoringly. "How would you think I +meant it!" + +"Well, I didn't either!" said the Doctor, with a satisfied laugh, "but +I'm inclined to think that I've done better than you're aware of, or +that you might give me credit for either!" + +"All _I'm_ aware of," said Mrs. Mangan, sitting erect, with a +look of defiance, "is that there's nothing in this world, no, nor in +Ireland neither, that you couldn't do if you chose to put your mind to +it! So now! You needn't be talking to _me_ like that! Pretending +I don't know you after all those years!" + +"Well, listen to me now," said the Doctor, well pleased, 'Tell me what +d'ye think of this marriage of Tishy's?" + +"You know well what I think of it, Francis, and what everybody thinks +of it, too! The smartest and the richest--" + +"Well, that's all right," interrupted the Doctor, "but for a woman +like yourself, that sets out to be fond of her children, its +surprising that you didn't make a match yet for your son!" He looked +at her with indulgent fondness, laughing at her, and she gazed back at +him with her heart in her eyes, and thought him the king of men. +"Well, what have you got to say to that, Mrs. Mangan? It's well for +the poor boy that his father isn't so neglectful of him!" + +"What do you mean, Francis? What are you talking of?" + +"I'm talking of poor Barty, my dear!" said the Doctor, enjoying +himself intensely, and watching his wife's handsome face with eyes +that lost no shade of its quick-changing expression. "You've a high +opingen of him, I know! Would you think Miss Christian Talbot-Lowry +was good enough for him?" + +Mrs. Mangan's mouth opened, in sheer stupefaction. She opened and shut +it two or three times before speech came to her. + +"Barty!" she panted; "Miss Christian Lowry! Sweet and Blessed Mother +of God! Francis, you're raving! Is it my poor Barty! They'd never look +at him!" + +The Doctor watched her with triumph in his face. "Don't be too sure of +that! I might have an argument up my sleeve--" he checked himself as +a nervous knock was heard at the door. "Who's there? Come in! Come in, +can't ye?" + +A telegram, the orange envelope dark with wet, was handed to him. He +read it. + +"No answer," he said, getting up quickly. "Well, bad manners to the +woman! Such a day to choose!" + +"What _is_ it, lovey? _Don't_ tell me it's a sick call! You couldn't +_possibly_ go _annywhere_ this evening!" cried Mrs. Mangan, +italicising, in her indignation, every second word, "and for goodness' +sake, go on and tell me what was the argument you said you had?" + +"My dear, I couldn't go into it properly now. I'll tell you another +time. I'm bound to go, and as quick as I can too! Run now, like a good +girl, and tell Barty or Mike to get the car ready in a hurry. That +wire was from Hannigan that lives below Riverstown. He says his +wife'll die--she's very bad, I'm afraid--I'm booked for the job this +long time--" + +Mrs. Mangan, loudly expostulating, though wise in obedience from +experience, flew from the room with her message, and speedily returned +to find the Big Doctor still hurrying about the surgery, making his +preparations, and talking as he went. + +"I mightn't be back till morning, but I'll not miss the wedding, don't +be afraid! I'll come as soon as I can, I promise you that!" + +"Oh, Francis, love, I hate to see you go out this awful night," wailed +Mrs. Mangan, following him into the little hall, and dragging his +fur-lined coat off a peg, and holding it for him; "and this scorf, my +darling, put it on you before you ketch your death. Will you take Mike +with you?" + +"I will not. He'll be wanting here. Don't delay me now. Good-bye, +girlie!" He kissed her. Then he opened the door, and with a roar, the +wind and the rain hurled in, with a force that staggered him, big as +he was. + +"Well, such a night!" lamented Mrs. Mangan, for the twentieth time, +clinging to the door; "I wish to God the telegraph wires were down +before they could send for you! Oh, will you take care of yourself +now, Francis?" + +"Of course I will! Go in out of the wet--" he pushed himself in under +the low hood of the car, and glided into the darkness. + +A doctor is a dedicated man. He accepts risks with a laugh, and toil +with, perhaps, a grumble, but he does not flinch. Obscure and +inglorious perils are his, and hardships that only himself can gauge. +Be sure that they are not unrecorded. They shine, and their splendour +is hidden, like those lanterns that were hidden under the coats of the +lantern-bearers. But there is, very surely, some screen, sensitive to +its rays, on which that light is thrown, that will some day show us +what we have been too self-centred to realise, and will dazzle us with +the devotion to which we are now too much habituated to admire. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + + +It was Barty who had brought out the car, and, on his father's +departure, he released the grip of the railings that had enabled him +to keep his footing, and was, literally, blown into the house. + +"Shut the door, my Pigeon-pie!" said his mother, "the wind's too +strong for me." + +Barty was too well accustomed to this expression of his mother's +affection to resent it, and having done her bidding, he followed her +into the Doctor's room, which alone had a fire in it. + +"Nothing would please Tishy only to go down to the Whelplys," +complained Mrs. Mangan, poking the fire, and seating herself in front +of it with a long, groaning sigh of exhaustion; "some nonsense about a +wreath. A wreath indeed! Any one'd be lucky that kept their hair on +their heads in this wind, let alone a wreath! You'll have to go fetch +her, my poor boy! I'll not be easy till I see her and Pappy home +again! I thought maybe Larry might have come over, but I declare now +I'm glad he did not." + +"Larry's not like himself lately," said Barty, sitting down in his +father's chair, and taking from his pocket a paper packet and +extracting a crushed cigarette from it. "I think the loss of th' +election disappointed him greatly." + +"'Twas well he had Tishy to console him," said Mrs. Mangan, "it was in +the nick of time she cot him!" + +"It was," replied Barty, tepidly. "I think also," he went on, "he's +put out about his aunt not coming down for the wedding, and even young +Mrs. Kirby away. It's funny to think Coppinger's Court and Mount Music +are empty now, the two of them--or will be after to-morrow. Miss +Christian went to-day." + +("See now how he's talking of her!" thought his mother. "I wonder did +Francis say anything to him?") Aloud she said: "It's a pity she's +gone, but it mightn't be for long." + +"I saw her yesterday. The Doctor sent me there for a map," said Barty, +with elaborate unconcern. + +("Look at that now!" again commented Mrs. Mangan to herself. "How well +they never told me he'd gone to see her! Aren't men a fright the way +they'll hide things!") + +"She's a sweet girl, my Pidgie," she resumed, to her son, "And Pappy's +always said the same thing." + +Barty looked at her like a horse prepared to shy. Had his father said +anything to her? The longing to speak of Christian had mastered him, +but if his mother knew-- + +"I think I'd better go for Tishy now," he said abruptly, "It might be +a job to get down the town later on." + +He left the room, and Mrs. Mangan, in her husband's big chair, by his +big fire, fell into tired yet peaceful ease of body and mind. How +wonderful was Francis! Who but he would have dared to aspire for his +children as he had? He had secured for Tishy the very pick of the +country; and now, her own darling Barty! Was it possible? Yes! It was, +if Francis said so! But _what_ was "the argument he had up his +sleeve?" Never mind! Francis would tell her when he came home. There +was no hurry. But again, how wonderful was Francis! + +She fell asleep. Barty woke her, coming into the room, dripping and +shining in oilskins and sou'wester, like a lifeboat man. + +"I couldn't get further than West Street, Mammie," he said, still +breathless. "I had on my waders, but the water was up over them. They +had boats going about, I believe, but I couldn't get hold of one. +Tishy'll have to stay the night at the Whelplys'. I met a man that +told me there was a big flood in the river, and haystacks, and cattle, +and all sorts, coming down in it. It was up over the line, and the +train hardly got out. It was near putting out the engine fires." + +"Oh, my God!" said Mrs. Mangan, with her big eyes that were so like +Barty's fixed on his, "the Riverstown road! Oh! Francis!--" she +groped at the front of her blouse for her Rosary, her lips moving in +hasty supplication, her eyes wild, roving from her son's face to the +blackness of the window. Suddenly she thrust back the Rosary. + +"Why do you tell me these things?" she cried, furiously, "you great +_omadhaun_! Is it to frighten me into my grave you want? Is it +nothing to you that your father's out alone? Oh God! Oh God! Why +couldn't he think of me as well as of that damned woman away at +Riverstown!" She began to cry, wildly, her forehead pressed against +one of the streaming panes of the window. "Oh Francis, Francis!--" + +There were many more than Mrs. Mangan and her son that sat up all +through that night in the Valley of the Broadwater. Trembling people +in little low-lying cottages, with thatched roofs held in place with +ladders, and ropes, and stones, with doors and windows barricaded +against the wind. But of what avail are barricades against the +creeping white lip of water, crawling in under the doors over the +earthen floors, soaking in, through mud-built walls, coming against +them at first as a thief in the night, falling upon them later as a +strong man armed? + +From the lower side-streets of Cluhir the people fled before the flood +to any shelter that the upper parts of the town could offer them. +Ghastly stories were told of drowned cattle that were swept against +the closed doors, and came pushing and banging at the windows, carried +there by their conqueror as it were with mockery, to entreat for the +succour that was too late. + +When the pale dawn looked out through wind-torn clouds, it saw a +half-mile breadth of racing water where had been pasture-fields; the +yellow, foam-laced river was half way up the tall, slender arches of +Cluhir Bridge, lapping ever higher, as if in envy, to hide the sole +beauty of the ignoble town. Trees, and hayricks, broken boats, and +humble pieces of cottage furniture, jostled each other between the +piers, tossing and dancing in grotesque gaiety, like drunken +holiday-makers on their way to the sea. The great river that is +credited with exacting six lives each year, was claiming its toll. How +many it took that December night does not now concern us, save, +indeed, where one sad house was in question, where a wife and a son +waited a long night through for the man who would not return to them. + + * * * * * + +Down below Cluhir, at Mount Music, old Evans crept out of the +shuttered house, and fought his way in the wind, amid fallen trees, +down to the big river, to see what still stood of the boathouse. The +boathouse had weathered out the night. Its roof had held, its door +stood firm. Old Evans surveyed it with pride. + +"Aha! Protestant building!" he said, old inveterate that he was. + +Then he saw on the submerged bank, amid a _debris_ of broken +rushes, and clots of foam, and branches, something that he knew +instantly for what it was. The drowned body of a man. + +Cautiously, and holding by shrubs and tree-stems, he reached the +place, where, half ashore, half lying in thin flood through which +tufts of grass were showing, with arms stretched out, grasping at the +shore, the intruder lay. Old Evans knew well that fur-collared coat. +Often enough he had held it for the Big Doctor. He had no need to turn +the defeated face from its pillow in the broken reeds. He stared down +at the man whom he had hated, with something of pity, more of +cynicism. + +"Well, ye wanted Mount Music!" he said, at last. "How d'ye like it now +ye've got it?" + + * * * * * + +The things that a man has accomplished we sum him up by, and the +things of which he was capable, and did not accomplish, are of no +account, and the net that held him is of a mesh beyond the vision of +most. + +Who shall pity the Big Doctor, or blame him over-much? He died in the +fullness of his powers, with his ambitions, as he believed, attained. +He knew himself to be a good son of the Church, a faithful husband, a +successfully-scheming father. What his priest thought of him is known +only to his priest, but we may be sure he regretted him. A jury of his +peers would have approved him in his every action. If the paths that +he had followed were sometimes tortuous, along many of them he had +been guided by the _ankus_ of that mahout in whose directions his +faith had taught him to confide. He had lived according to the light +that he had received, and in his last act he took his life in his +hand, and gave it for another. + +For my part, I believe that the Big Doctor viewed with a justified +composure + + " ... that last + Wild pageant of the accumulated past + That clangs and flashes for a drowning man." + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + + +In that same wind-wild dawn, Larry awoke, and tried to believe that he +was a bridegroom, and was going to espouse Tishy Mangan in the course +of the next few hours. + +"_C'est toujours l'imprevu qui arrive_!" he told himself. That +ancient ditty, "The Yeoman's Wedding," that he had often heard Dr. +Mangan sing, attacked him like an illness, and enforced its galloping +metres on all he did. + + "Through the valley we'll haste, + For we've no time to waste! + For it is my wedding morning, my wedding morning!" + +The housemaid (that same Upper Housemaid who had spoken of the +riff-raff of Cluhir) heard him, in the bathroom, loudly announcing his +intentions. + +"Ding dong! We'll gallop along!" Larry sang, and the Upper Housemaid +said to her subordinate, "What a hurry he's in! Well! Bright's his +fancy!" + +The Upper Housemaid was rash in thus giving her opinion. Larry's fancy +was far from bright, but he was of those unfortunates who, when +obsessed by a tune, must yield to its importunity, even though it +followed him to the steps of the scaffold. + +It is not insinuated that Larry was now, metaphorically, or otherwise, +in such a case. He was, as he told himself, quite prepared to go +through with the job, but, he likewise told himself, it was a rotten +sort of business dressing for your wedding with not a soul, bar the +servants, to say good morning to, and even they looked as sour as +lemons and hadn't a smile among the lot of them. Larry drank some +coffee, and crumbled some toast, and brutally and wastefully broke +into a poached egg, turning what had been a triumph of snow, into a +yellow peril, and gave its attendant bacon to Aunt Freddy's old +Pomeranian, and found that he had finished his breakfast, and that it +was no more than ten o'clock. The rain was coming down in torrents; he +could not go out, not even to the stables. What on earth was he to do +from now till one o'clock? The blooming wedding was at two. + +He thought of it as some one else's, and realised that he so thought +of it, and then just tripped himself up in the middle of the further +reflection that he wished it were. + +"Probably getting married is always a bore," he said to himself, +consolingly. "'E's all right when you know 'im, but you've got to know +'im fust'! Why do these rotten old songs stick in my head like this? +Because I'm a fool, no doubt, and always was!" + +He walked into the hall, and there surveyed his luggage, packed and +ready, and appallingly new. + +"It'll give the show away, even if they let us off confetti," he +thought. + +He wished he hadn't given in to this High Nuptial Mass business, and a +big wedding, and all the rest of it, but the Doctor and Tishy were +dead keen on it, and he had been sat on. + +He and Tishy were going to London, and if this gale lasted, they would +have a devil of a crossing. He wondered if Tishy were a good sailor. +He wasn't, anyhow. He would warn her that he would be no more use to +her than a sick headache, which she would probably have, to start +with, and she wouldn't want another. The Mount Music people were +across the Channel by this time, ahead of the gale too. Luck for them! +Old Mrs. Twomey had told him they were gone, and she said they would +never come back again. Silly old ass, what did she know about it? + +He had wandered into his studio; now, without his own volition, almost +as if he were hypnotised, he took the canvas on which he had painted +Christian, from where it was leaning, face inwards, against the wall, +and put it on an easel. He had not looked at it since the day of +conflict, and he told himself that he was now regarding it with the +frigid rye of the art critic. + +Yes, it was good. Better than he thought. The technique was jolly +good, slick, and unworried, and the likeness was all right too. He had +somehow just got hold of that ethereal look she always had had. She +was hearing those voices they used to chaff her about. How she had +gone for John one day, when he began ragging her about that old hymn! +She always had the pluck of the devil! He frowned. She hadn't had +pluck enough to stand up to her father! He would look at her picture +no longer. He wouldn't think of her. She had chucked him. But his eyes +were held by the eyes that he had painted; with a rush, the thought of +her possessed him. She was everywhere, penetrating his very being, +"his heart in her hands"; he shook in the grip of remembrance, almost +of realisation, of her presence. For a moment, Time stood still for +him; he hung, like a ship that has been flung up into the wind, +trembling. Then the sails filled, the present re-asserted itself. He +was going to marry Tishy Mangan, and Christian had chucked him. He +turned the canvas again. + +Why had he thought of that beastly hymn? It had got hold of him now! +The measured tramp of the tune fitted itself to the tick of the +clattering little tin clock on the studio chimney-piece. + + "How the troops of Mid-ian, + Prowl, and prowl around! + Christian! Up and at them--" + +No, that was what the Duke of Wellington said to the Guards at--Oh, +_damn_ the clock, anyhow! He caught it up, and pitched it across +the room on to a sofa, and hurled a bundle of draperies after it and +on top of it. But the tune would not stop, and the muffled, unbaffled +tick of the clock went on. He swung out of the studio, and went back +to the hall. + +The house had its back to the storm, and it was only when he looked +down the Cluhir avenue, that he realised with what fury the rain was +falling. The wind had moderated a little, but the barograph-needle was +still almost off the paper it had gone so low. It was only eleven +o'clock. Two hours before the motor was to come for him. He felt, as +he told himself, using the adjective that has had to undertake the +duties of so many others, rotten. Empty and rather sick, and, well, +generally beastly--a sort of vague funk. Yes, by Jove! He was in a +regular blue funk! That was what was wrong with him. (But he certainly +felt sick too.) + +What on earth was he afraid of? The service couldn't last for ever, +and he had barred speeches at the Collation (as Mrs. Mangan insisted +on calling it). His thoughts took a twist. Surely he wasn't afraid of +the Mangans? He liked Mrs. Mangan; he was quite fond of her, quite a +good sort of mother-in-law she'd make. And Barty, his best man, good +old Barty! And the Doctor--Of course he wasn't afraid of the Doctor +either. He had always liked him. There only remained Tishy. Hang it +all! He wasn't afraid of the girl he was going to marry! She might +have a bit of a temper--she certainly had been rather rattled these +last few days, but you couldn't blame her for that. The very last time +he had seen her--the evening before the big storm began, wasn't +it?--he had overtaken her in the dark in the Mall, going home after +shopping, and that long-legged cad of a fellow, Cloherty, carrying her +parcels for her. By Jove! She had let drive at him after Cloherty had +gone and they were in the house! By Jove, yes! He laughed a little at +the remembrance. She had said it was a nice time of day for him to be +coming over. She had jolly nearly cried, she was so mad with him. For +the life of him he didn't know why. But, after all, that wasn't +exactly temper.--Blowed if he knew what it was. He supposed it was +temperament--quite a different thing! He laughed and had a look at a +large and splendid photograph of Miss Mangan, that had been a sort of +corollary of the Dublin trousseau. Tishy was all right. Tishy was a +topper! He said it aloud, and, with that, another tune, the old +nigger-tune, "Nelly was a Lady," fitted itself absurdly to the words. + +"Tishy was a topper!" he sang. "Last night she--No, she didn't! By +Jove, there's the motor! What's it coming at this hour for?" + +He watched the car turn into the wide sweep in front of the house, and +wheel round it, and draw up at the foot of the hall-door steps. It +looked like the car he had hired, he knew the shover's face, but there +was someone in it. He saw, with pleasure, that it was Barty who was in +the car. Good old Barty, come over early to buck him up a bit. Larry +sprang to the door, and as he opened it, Barty was coming up the +steps. He stood still on the top step. He was very pale, Barty always +had a pasty face, Larry thought, but this whiteness was different, and +there was a look in his eyes that made Larry, over-strung, tuned to +vibrate to ill tidings, catch his arm, and say: + +"What is it? Tell me quick!" + +Barty did not answer at once. He seemed as if he could not speak. He +came into the hall and shut the door behind him and leaned against it, +one hand still on the handle, his breath coming short and fast. + +"My father was drowned last night!" he said at last, in a low, hurried +voice. "He drove into the river. The flood was up on the road. Wait, +Larry! That isn't all--" he went on quickly, holding up his other +hand to keep Larry from speaking. "That's bad enough, God knows! But +this other thing is Disgrace!" + +Larry waited. + +"It isn't easy to tell you," said Barty, moistening his dry lips. +"There's just one good thing about it, my father didn't know--" + +"What _is_ it? Look sharp!" + +Larry was shaking with the strain of waiting for this withheld horror. + +"Tishy was caught out by the flood last night; she didn't come home--" + +"What! She also--?" stammered Larry. + +"I wish to God she were!" said Barty, fiercely. "No. But while my +father was going to his death, maybe when he was drowning itself, she +bolted with Ned Cloherty! They went to Dublin on the mail--a porter at +the station saw them--there's no doubt about it!" + +Larry sat down by a table, and put his head on his arms and tried to +think. His brain was whirling. He had covered his eyes, because he +knew if he saw Barty's tragic face again he would laugh, and if he +began to laugh, he said to himself, God only knew when he would stop. +It was a fatal trick of his nerves, he could never make Barty +understand. He would be shocked and scandalised for ever. + +The Doctor drowned! He must fix his mind on that. He mustn't think of +Tishy; if he did, he knew that this horrible, inhuman surge of joy +that was pulsing in him would betray itself in his face, would +overwhelm him, like the flood in the river, would sweep away all +decency, sympathy, would leave him bare of all that he ought to feel +and express. (But to think that he hadn't to get married to-day! Oh, +blessed, beautiful Cloherty!) He was going to be very angry with +Cloherty, as soon as he had pulled himself together. Cloherty had +behaved like a blackguard; he had blackened Larry's face; he had +shamed him; had stolen his girl--(but, for all that, oh, Blessed and +Beautiful--!) + +Larry and Barty sat for awhile and talked, saying, as people will, at +such moments, dull things over and over again, uninspired, +conventional, stupid things. Both were equally afraid to say the +things that were in their minds about Tishy and Cloherty; Barty, +because he was so angry with her that he feared he might hurt Larry; +Larry, because he told himself he would have to sit down to the thing +squarely, and think it out, before he knew what to say about it. He +tried to concentrate on the death of Barty's father, but here, +strangely enough, Barty seemed equally unable to respond without +restraint. + +"I've got to go on to Mount Music. They say the flood's down, and you +can get there now," he said, presently, in the voice from which all +the colour and life had died, "I've arranged for a hearse. I had a +wire, early, telling me what--what had happened. I was wondering, +Larry, would you come with me? I've no right, now, to ask you, +but--" His tired voice died on the sentence, his mournful eyes +sought Larry's and said what his lips failed to say. + +"My dear old chap," said Larry, ardently, grateful for the chance of +showing Barty that he bore no ill will to him, "Of course I will! +Anything I could do to help you, I'd be only too glad--you mustn't +think anything will make a difference--" + +They said little to each other as the motor splashed along the flooded +road. Each was absorbed in the effort to envisage the profound changes +that had befallen himself in a single night. More than once Barty +turned to Larry as if he were about to speak, and then turned away; +they came to the Mount Music entrance, and as the car turned in +through the gateway, Barty suddenly put his bony and pallid hand on +Larry's knee. + +"There's a thing no one here knows but myself, and I didn't hear it +till two days ago, but I can't bear the weight of it any longer. I +can't give you all the details, but you may rely on what I say being +correct." He looked away from Larry out of the window. The car was +running swiftly up the smooth levels of the long avenue; he knew he +had no time for circumlocution. "My father told me," he began, "that +in some way, between himself and the Major a lot of money had passed. +The Major was greatly pressed for money--he wasn't getting his rents, +and there were many liabilities--my father got hold of them all. I +think he lent him a lot of money too--" He paused an instant, then he +rushed on with his story. "Anyway, whatever was between them, the +Major gave my father the title-deeds of this house and the demesne in +security for what he had borrowed. My father has them now, I mean," he +corrected himself, "they're in my office. He said they were for me--he +as good as gave them to me." Barty slowly turned a dusky red. He +thought of what his father had said of Mount Music, of Christian; the +arrogance, the hateful facetiousness; he had felt as if brutal hands +had been laid on a saint; even now, he shuddered in spirit as +remembrance came to him. + +"Good God! Was that why they went away?" Larry said, with a horror +that scarcely permitted of speech. "Do you mean the place isn't theirs +any more?" He thought: "I wish he'd take his hand off my knee! Thank +God, I'm out of it!" + +"It" meant marriage with the daughter and the sister of men who could +do such things. + +Perhaps some telepathic vibration from that wave of repulsion reached +Barty. + +"You needn't think I had anything to do with it," he muttered, +withdrawing his hand, "or ever will!" he added, as if to himself. + +Larry remained silent; the car ground into the heavy river-gravel on +the sweep in front of the house, and ceased at the door that he had +not seen since that day of wrath when he had cast his cousins behind +him for ever. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + + +Dr. Mangan's body was still lying on the door on which it had been +carried up from the river-bank. Kitchen chairs now supported it where +it lay, with its burden, between the high windows, in the desolate, +sheeted dining-room, surrounded by portraits of Talbots, and Lowrys, +and their collaterals, who would surely have considered the presence +of Francis Aloysius Mangan, dead or alive, as something of an +intrusion, not to say a liberty. + +Old Evans opened the hall door, and silently led the two young men +through the hall, and opening the dining-room door, left them there. +They stood looking down on the Big Doctor in silence. The strong, +coarse face had taken on that aloof dignity, even splendour of +expression, that death can confer. The servants had covered all else +with a sheet; the soaked fur collar of the coat was turned up, and +made a pillow for the big, iron-grey head. + +With a shaking hand Barty turned back the sheet. His father's thick, +powerful hands were crossed on his broad breast. The son stooped and +kissed them, humbly; then he replaced the sheet, and kissed the heavy +brow, from which all the marks of the turmoil of life had been +smoothed. + +"I believe he is near us," he whispered; he took a prayer-book from +his pocket and knelt, his head resting on the covered form. + +Larry knelt also. If only Barty had not told him that abhorrent thing. +He tried to forget it, to pray for the soul of the man who had, as he +believed, always been kind to him, and a good friend. Larry was +undevout, careless, thinking little of spiritual things, so little, +that he had scarcely troubled himself either to question or to accept +what he had been taught, but he was quick to respond to emotion of any +kind; now he listened, with an unaccustomed reverence, to Barty's +voice, brokenly whispering the prayers of his Church. Their unfamiliar +beauty stirred his imagination, their appeal for mercy wakened his +heart, and made him ask himself what was he that he should refuse +mercy! He felt the anger, that had only been roused in him within the +last few minutes, dying, merged in pity and in awe. + +"By the multitude of Thy mercies, ever compassionate to human frailty, +deliver him, O Lord!" Barty's husky, shaking voice murmured. "Give +him, O Lord, eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon him--" + +The door was opened and Evans said: + +"The police are here, and are asking for Mr. Mangan." + +Barty rose from his knees; without a word, he placed the prayer book +in Larry's hands, and left the room. + +Larry had risen also, but instead of following Barty he knelt again by +the Big Doctor's still figure, and began to speak to him in the low +voice that is the mark of recognition of the great mystery of death, +and tells of that singular, sudden reverence that is bestowed on the +body when the spirit has left it; a reverence that seems to imply a +belief in the nearness of the freed spirit, which is unsupported by +the immeasurable remoteness of the expression of the mask that it once +wore. + +"Doctor," said Larry, "I don't know if you can hear me, but I'll +chance it. I want to tell you that it's not my fault about Tishy, and +the wedding not coming off. She bolted with Ned Cloherty last night--" +he checked himself, and felt he ought to apologise for talking slang, +and then thought that if it were the Doctor, himself, he wouldn't +mind. "Tishy liked Cloherty best," he hurried on, "and she was +probably quite right, but I want you to know that I would have played +up all right." Then he said, hesitating, that Barty had told him a +thing that he didn't quite understand the rights of. "You must forgive +me if I felt angry. I daresay there's a lot to be said on your side if +I only knew it. But I don't and you can't tell me now--" He stood +up, and touching the cold brow, smoothed back the damp hair. "You were +always awfully good to me," he said, and, stooping, kissed the +forehead, as Barty had done, and found that his eyes were full of +tears. + +As he stood erect again, he saw he was not alone in the room. A girl +was standing just behind him with a basket of Christmas roses in her +hand, a girl who had come quietly in while he was speaking, and had +waited, watching, with eyes that saw more than Larry's kneeling figure +beside the dead man, listening, with senses that were perceptive of a +fellow-listener, in whom were newly-learnt impulses of self-reproach +and penitence. + +"Christian!" said Larry, trembling, as he had trembled when he spoke +to her by the Druid Stone on Cnocan an Ceoil Sidhe. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOUNT MUSIC*** + + +******* This file should be named 14025.txt or 14025.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/2/14025 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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