The Martins Of Cro' Martin Volume I Part 32

"By Jove! you'll kill me in trying to save my life," said Repton, bursting into the room. "I didn't want to play eavesdropper, Froode, but these thin part.i.tions are only soundboards for the voice. This gentleman," added he, turning to Magennis, "is perfectly correct. There was a blow; and a blow has only one consequence, and that one I 'm ready for. There may be, for aught I know, twenty ways of settling these matters in London or at the clubs, but we 're old-fas.h.i.+oned in our notions in Ireland here; and I don't think that even when we pick up new fas.h.i.+ons that we 're much the better for them, so that if your friend is here, Captain, and ready--"

"Both, sir; here and ready!"

"Then so am I; and now for the place. Come, Froode, you don't know Ireland as well as I do; just humor me this time, and whenever I get into a sc.r.a.pe in Scotland you shall have it all your own way. Eh, Captain, is n't that fair?"

"Spoke like a trump!" muttered Magennis.

"For _me_, did you say?" said Repton, taking a letter from the servant, who had just entered the room.

"Yes, sir; and the groom says there's an answer expected."

"The devil take it, I 've forgotten my spectacles. Froode, just tell me what's this about, and who it comes from."

"It's Miss Martin's hand," said Froode, breaking the seal and running over the contents. "Oh, I perceive," said he; "they're afraid you have taken French leave of them at Cro' Martin, and she has driven into town to carry you back again."

"That comes of my leaving word at the little post-office to forward my letters to Dublin if not asked for to-morrow. Take a pen, Froode, and write a couple of lines for me; say that a very urgent call--a professional call--will detain me here to-day, but that if not back by dinner-time--Captain Magennis thinks it not likely," added he, turning towards him as he sat, with a very equivocal expression, half grin, half sneer, upon his features--"that I 'll be with them at breakfast next morning," resumed Repton, boldly. "Make some excuse for my not answering the note myself,--whatever occurs to you. And so, sir," said he, turning to Magennis, "your friend's name is Ma.s.singbred. Any relation to Colonel Moore Ma.s.singbred?"

"His son,--his only son, I believe."

"How strange! I remember the father in the 'House'--I mean the Irish House--five-and-thirty years ago; he was always on the Government benches. It was of him Parsons wrote those doggerel lines,--

'A man without a heart or head, Who seldom thought, who never read, A witty word who never said, One at whose board none ever fed, Such is the Colonel M--g--b--d.'

He could n't call him a coward, though; for when they went out--which they did--Ma.s.singbred's manner on the ground was admirable."

"Will that do?" said Froode, showing a few lines he had hastily jotted down.

"I can't read a word of it, but of course it will," said he; "and then, sir," added he, addressing Magennis, "the sooner we place ourselves at your disposal the better."

Froode whispered something in Repton' ear, and by his manner seemed as if remonstrating with him, when the other said aloud,--

"We 're in Ireland, Major; and, what's more, we 're in Galway, as Macleweed said once to a prisoner, 'With a Yorks.h.i.+re jury, sir, I 'd hang you. Your sentence now is to pay five marks to the King, and find bail for your good behavior.' You see what virtue there is in locality."

"There's a neat spot about two miles off, on the road to Maum," said Magennis to the Major. "We could ride slowly forward, and you might keep us in view."

"In what direction did you say?"

"Take the second turn out of the market-place till you pa.s.s the baker's shop, then to the left, and straight on afterwards. You can't miss it."

"Stop a moment, sir," said Froode to Magennis, as he moved towards the door; "one word, if you please. It is distinctly understood that I have been overruled in this business,--that, in fact, I have submitted--"

"Your point has been reserved," said Repton, laughing, while he led him away; and Magennis at the same moment took his departure.

It was, indeed, with no slight feeling of triumph that thia gentleman now hastened back to the Martin Arms. Never did a great diplomatist experience more pride in the conclusion of some crowning act of negotiation than did he in the accomplishment of this affair.

"There 's many a man," said he to himself, "who 'd have accepted an apology here. There's many a man might have let himself be embarra.s.sed by the circ.u.mstances; for, certainly, the taking hold of the bridle was an awkward fact, and if the Major was a cute fellow he 'd have made a stand upon it. I must say that the Counsellor showed no backwardness; he comes of that fine old stock we used to have before the Union."

And with this profound reflection he entered the room where Ma.s.singbred sat awaiting him.

"It's all settled. We're to meet at the Priest's Gap within an hour,"

said Magennis, with the air of a man who had acquitted himself cleverly.

"And though I say it that should n't, if you were in other hands this morning you would n't have got your shot."

"I always relied implicitly upon your skill!" said Ma.s.singbred, humoring his vanity.

"Have you anything to arrange,--a letter or so to write; for I'll step down to Dr. Hearkins to tell him to follow us?"

Ma.s.singbred made no reply as the other left the room. Once more alone, he began to think gravely over his present situation. Nor could all his habitual levity steel him against the conviction that five minutes of common-sense talk might arrange a dispute which now promised a serious ending. "However," thought he, "we are not in the land where such differences admit of amicable solution, and there's no help for it."

A sharp tap at the door startled him from these musings, and before he could well reply to it Daniel Nelligan entered the room, and advanced towards him with an air of mingled ease and constraint.

"I hope you 'll forgive me, Mr. Ma.s.singbred," he began. "I feel certain that you will at some future day, at least, for what I 'm going to do."

Here he stopped and drew a long breath, as if not knowing in what terms to continue. Ma.s.singbred handed him a chair, and took one in front of him without speaking.

"I know what brought you here to-day; I am aware of it all."

He paused, and waited for the other to speak; but Ma.s.singbred sat without offering a word, and evidently relying on his own social tact to confound and embarra.s.s his visitor.

"I know, sir, that you are likely to regard my interference as impertinent," resumed Nelligan; "but I trust that the friend of my son, Joe--"

"I must set you right upon one point, at least, Mr. Nelligan," said Ma.s.singbred, with an easy smile. "If you be only as accurate in your knowledge of my affairs as you are with respect to my private friends.h.i.+ps, this visit has certainly proceeded from some misconception.

Your son and I were friends once upon a time. We are so no longer!"

"I never heard of this. I never knew you had quarrelled!"

"We have not, sir. We have not even met. The discourtesy he has shown me since my arrival here--his avoidance of me, too marked to be explained away--is an offence. The only misfortune is that it is one which can be practised with impunity."

"My son asks for none such," said Dan, fiercely. "And if your observation is meant for an insult--" He stopped suddenly, as if checked by something within, and then said, but in a voice full and measured, "I'm magistrate of this town, sir, and I come here upon information that has reached me of your intentions to commit a breach of the peace."

"My dear Mr. Nelligan," began Ma.s.singbred, in his most seductive of manners,--but the other had already witnessed the rupture of the only tie which bound them, the supposed friends.h.i.+p between Joe and Ma.s.singbred, and cared nothing for all the blandishments he could bestow,--"my dear Mr. Nelligan, you cannot, surely, suppose that a mere stranger as I am in your county--scarcely ten days here--should have been unfortunate enough to have incurred the animosity of any one."

"I hold here a statement, sir," said Nelligan, sternly, "which, if you please to pledge your honor to be incorrect--"

"And this is Galway!" exclaimed Ma.s.singbred,--"this glorious land of chivalrous sentiment of which we poor Englishmen have been hearing to satiety! The Paradise of Point of Honor, then, turns out a very commonplace locality, after all!"

"I 'm proud to say that our county has another reputation than its old one; not but--" and he added the words in some temper--"there are a few left would like to teach you that its character was not acquired for nothing."

"Well, well!" sighed Jack, as he closed his eyes, and appeared as if indulging in a revery, "of all the mockeries I have lived to see unmasked, this is the worst and meanest."

"I have not come here to listen to this, sir," said Nelli-gan, haughtily, as he arose. "I waited upon you, intending to accept your solemn pledge, by word of honor, to commit no act hostile to the public peace. Now, sir, I shall call upon you to give me the legal guarantee for this security,--good and sufficient bail, and that within an hour!"

"My dear Mr. Nelligan," replied Ma.s.singbred, with all the quiet ease of an unruffled temper, "I have not a single friend here, except yourself, upon whom I could call in such an emergency. I am utterly unknown in these parts; my very name unheard of before my arrival. If I _did_ by any unhappy circ.u.mstance find myself in such an involvement as you speak of, I solemnly a.s.sure you my first thought would be to address myself to Mr. Nelligan."

The easy impertinence of this speech would have been perfectly successful a short time previous, when Nelligan yet believed in the close friends.h.i.+p with his son. It came now, however, too late, and the old man listened to it with something bordering on anger.

"Good and sufficient bail, sir,--yourself and two others," repeated he, slowly, and moving towards the door.

"One word, I pray," said Jack, rising, and speaking with more earnestness and apparently with more sincerity. "I do not ask you any details as to the circ.u.mstances you impute to me, but perhaps you would, as a favor, tell me how this information has reached you?"