Lord Kilgobbin Part 45

It's lucky, girls, that you have the telegram there to tell you what's coming.'

'It would have been more piquant, papa, if he had made his message say, "I propose for Nina. Reply by wire."'

'Or, "May I marry your daughter?" chimed in Nina quickly.

'There it is, now,' broke in Kearney, laughing, 'you're fighting for him already! Take my word for it, Mr. Daniel, there's no so sure way to get a girl for a wife, as to make her believe there's another only waiting to be asked. It's the threat of the opposition coach on the road keeps down the fares.'

'Papa is all wrong,' said Kate. 'There is no such conceivable pleasure as saying No to a man that another woman is ready to accept. It is about the most refined sort of self-flattery imaginable.'

'Not to say that men are utterly ignorant of that freemasonry among women which gives us all an interest in the man who marries one of us,' said Nina. 'It is only your confirmed old bachelor that we all agree in detesting.'

''Faith, I give you up altogether. You're a puzzle clean beyond me,' said Kearney, with a sigh.

'I think it is Balzac tells us,' said Donogan, 'that women and politics are the only two exciting pursuits in life, for you never can tell where either of them will lead you.'

'And who is Balzac?' asked Kearney.

'Oh, uncle, don't let me hear you ask who is the greatest novelist that ever lived.'

''Faith, my dear, except _Tristram Shandy_ and _Tom Jones_, and maybe _Robinson Crusoe_--if that be a novel--my experience goes a short way. When I am not reading what's useful--as in the _Farmer's Chronicle_ or Purcell's "Rotation of Crops"--I like the "Accidents" in the newspapers, where they give you the name of the gentleman that was smashed in the train, and tell you how his wife was within ten days of her third confinement; how it was only last week he got a step as a clerk in Somerset House. Haven't you more materials for a sensation novel there than any of your three-volume fellows will give you?'

'The times we are living in give most of us excitement enough,' said Donogan. 'The man who wants to gamble for life itself need not be balked now.'

'You mean that a man can take a shot at an emperor?' said Kearney inquiringly.

'No, not that exactly; though there are stakes of that kind some men would not shrink from. What are called "arms of precision" have had a great influence on modern politics. When there's no time for a plebiscite, there's always time for a pistol.'

'Bad morality, Mr. Daniel,' said Kearney gravely.

'I suspect we do not fairly measure what Mr. Daniel says,' broke in Kate.

'He may mean to indicate a revolution, and not justify it.'

'I mean both!' said Donogan. 'I mean that the mere permission to live under a bad government is too high a price to pay for life at all. I'd rather go "down into the streets," as they call it, and have it out, than I'd drudge on, dogged by policemen, and sent to gaol on suspicion.'

'He is right,' cried Nina. 'If I were a man, I'd think as he does.'

'Then I'm very glad you're not,' said Kearney; 'though, for the matter of rebellion, I believe you would be a more dangerous Fenian as you are. Am I right, Mr. Daniel?'

'I am disposed to say you are, sir,' was his mild reply.

'Ain't we important people this evening!' cried Kearney, as the servant entered with another telegram. 'This is for you, Mr. Daniel. I hope we're to hear that the Cabinet wants you in Downing Street.'

'I'd rather it did not,' said he, with a very peculiar smile, which did not escape Kate's keen glance across the table, as he said, 'May I read my despatch?'

'By all means,' said Kearney; while, to leave him more undisturbed, he turned to Nina, with some quizzical remark about her turn for the telegraph coming next. 'What news would you wish it should bring you, Nina?' asked he.

'I scarcely know. I have so many things to wish for, I should be puzzled which to place first.'

'Should you like to be Queen of Greece?' asked Kate.

'First tell me if there is to be a King, and who is he?'

'Maybe it's Mr. Daniel there, for I see he has gone off in a great hurry to say he accepts the crown.'

'What should you ask for, Kate,' cried Nina, 'if Fortune were civil enough to give you a chance?'

'Two days' rain for my turnips,' said Kate quickly. 'I don't remember wis.h.i.+ng for anything so much in all my life.'

'Your turnips!' cried Nina contemptuously.

'Why not? If you were a queen, would you not have to think of those who depended on you for support and protection? And how should I forget my poor heifers and my calves--calves of very tender years some of them--and all with as great desire to fatten themselves as any of us have to do what will as probably lead to our destruction?'

'You're not going to have the rain, anyhow,' said Kearney; 'and you'll not be sorry, Nina, for you wanted a fine day to finish your sketch of Croghan Castle.'

'Oh! by the way, has old Bob recovered from his lameness yet, to be fit to be driven?'

'Ask Kitty there; she can tell you, perhaps.'

'Well, I don't think I'd harness him yet. The smith has pinched him in the off fore-foot, and he goes tender still.'

'So do I when I go afoot, for I hate it,' cried Nina; 'and I want a day in the open air, and I want to finish my old Castle of Croghan--and last of all,' whispered she in Kate's ear, 'I want to show my distinguished friend Mr. Walpole that the prospect of a visit from him does not induce me to keep the house. So that, from all the wants put together, I shall take an early breakfast, and start to-morrow for Cruhan--is not that the name of the little village in the bog?'

'That's Miss Betty's own townland--though I don't know she's much the richer of her tenants,' said Kearney, laughing. 'The oldest inhabitants never remember a rent-day.'

'What a happy set of people!'

'Just the reverse. You never saw misery till you saw them. There is not a cabin fit for a human being, nor is there one creature in the place with enough rags to cover him.'

'They were very civil as I drove through. I remember how a little basket had fallen out, and a girl followed me ten miles of the road to restore it,' said Nina.

'That they would; and if it were a purse of gold they 'd have done the same,' cried Kate.

'Won't you say that they'd shoot you for half a crown, though?' said Kearney, 'and that the worst "Whiteboys" of Ireland come out of the same village?'

'I do like a people so unlike all the rest of the world,' cried Nina; 'whose motives none can guess at, none forecast. I'll go there to-morrow.'

These words were said as Daniel had just re-entered the room, and he stopped and asked, 'Where to?'

'To a Whiteboy village called Cruhan, some ten miles off, close to an old castle I have been sketching.'

'Do you mean to go there to-morrow?' asked he, half-carelessly; but not waiting for her answer, and as if fully preoccupied, he turned and left the room.

CHAPTER x.x.xV

A DRIVE AT SUNRISE