A CRAFTY COUNSELLOR
As they were about to sit down to dinner on that day, a telegram,
re-directed from Kilgobbin, reached Kearney’s hand. It bore the date of
that morning from Plmnuddm Castle, and was signed ‘Atlee.’ Its contents
were these: ‘H. E. wants to mark the Kilgobbin defence with some sign of
approval. What shall it be? Reply by wire.’
‘Read that, and tell us what you think of it.’
‘Joe Atlee at the Viceroy’s castle in Wales!’ cried the other. ‘We’re going
up the ladder hand over head, Mr. Kearney! A week ago his ambition was
bounded on the south by Ship Street, and on the east by the Lower Castle
Yard.’
‘How do you understand the despatch?’ asked Kearney quickly.
‘Easily enough. His Excellency wants to know what you’ll have for shooting
down three--I think they were three--Irishmen.’
‘The fellows came to demand arms, and with loaded guns in their hands.’
‘And if they did! Is not the first right of a man the weapon that defends
him? He that cannot use it or does not possess it, is a slave. By what
prerogative has Kilgobbin Castle within its walls what can take the life of
any, the meanest, tenant on the estate?’
‘I am not going to discuss this with you; I think I have heard most of it
before, and was not impressed when I did so. What I asked was, what sort of
a recognition one might safely ask for and reasonably expect?’
‘That’s not long to look for. Let them support you in the county. Telegraph
back, “I’m going to stand, and, if I get in, will be a Whig whenever I am
not a Nationalist. Will the party stand by me?”’
‘Scarcely with that programme.’
‘And do you think that the priests’ nominees, who are three-fourths of the
Irish members, offer better terms? Do you imagine that the men that crowd
the Whig lobby have not reserved their freedom of action about the Pope,
and the Fenian prisoners, and the Orange processionists? If they were not
free so far, I’d ask you with the old Duke, How is Her Majesty’s Government
to be carried on?’
Kearney shook his head in dissent.
‘And that’s not all,’ continued the other; ‘but you must write to the
papers a flat contradiction of that shooting story. You must either declare
that it never occurred at all, or was done by that young scamp from the
Castle, who happily got as much as he gave.’
‘That I could not do,’ said Kearney firmly.
‘And it is that precisely that you must do,’ rejoined the other. ‘If you go
into the House to represent the popular feeling of Irishmen, the hand that
signs the roll must not be stained with Irish blood.’
‘You forget; I was not within fifty miles of the place.’
‘And another reason to disavow it. Look here, Mr. Kearney: if a man in a
battle was to say to himself, I’ll never give any but a fair blow, he’d
make a mighty bad soldier. Now, public life is a battle, and worse than a
battle in all that touches treachery and falsehood. If you mean to do any
good in the world, to yourself and your country, take my word for it,
you’ll have to do plenty of things that you don’t like, and, what’s worse,
can’t defend.’
‘The soup is getting cold all this time. Shall we sit down?’
‘No, not till we answer the telegram. Sit down and say what I told you.’
‘Atlee will say I’m mad. He knows that I have not a shilling in the world.’
‘Riches is not the badge of the representation,’ said the other.
‘They can at least pay the cost of the elections.’
‘Well, we’ll pay ours too--not all at once, but later on; don’t fret
yourself about that.’
‘They’ll refuse me flatly.’
‘No, we have a lien on the fine gentleman with the broken arm. What would
the Tories give for that story, told as I could tell it to them? At all
events, whatever you do in life, remember this--that if asked your price
for anything you have done, name the highest, and take nothing if it’s
refused you. It’s a waiting race, but I never knew it fail in the end.’
Kearney despatched his message, and sat down to the table, far too much
flurried and excited to care for his dinner. Not so his guest, who ate
voraciously, seldom raising his head and never uttering a word. ‘Here’s to
the new member for King’s County,’ said he at last, and he drained off his
glass; ‘and I don’t know a pleasanter way of wishing a man prosperity than
in a bumper. Has your father any politics, Mr. Kearney?’
‘He thinks he’s a Whig, but, except hating the Established Church and
having a print of Lord Russell over the fireplace, I don’t know he has
other reason for the opinion.’
‘All right; there’s nothing finer for a young man entering public life than
to be able to sneer at his father for a noodle. That’s the practical way to
show contempt for the wisdom of our ancestors. There’s no appeal the public
respond to with the same certainty as that of the man who quarrels with his
relations for the sake of his principles, and whether it be a change in
your politics or your religion, they’re sure to uphold you.’
‘If differing with my father will ensure my success, I can afford to be
confident,’ said Dick, smiling.
‘Your sister has her notions about Ireland, hasn’t she?’
‘Yes, I believe she has; but she fancies that laws and Acts of Parliament
are not the things in fault, but ourselves and our modes of dealing with
the people, that were not often just, and were always capricious. I am not
sure how she works out her problem, but I believe we ought to educate each
other; and that in turn, for teaching the people to read and write, there
are scores of things to be learned from them.’
‘And the Greek girl?’
‘The Greek girl’--began Dick haughtily, and with a manner that betokened
rebuke, and which suddenly changed as he saw that nothing in the other’s
manner gave any indication of intended freedom or insolence--‘The Greek is
my first cousin, Mr. Donogan,’ said he calmly; ‘but I am anxious to know
how you have heard of her, or indeed of any of us.’
‘From Joe--Joe Atlee! I believe we have talked you over--every one of
you--till I know you all as well as if I lived in the castle and called you
by your Christian names. Do you know, Mr. Kearney’--and his voice trembled
now as he spoke--‘that to a lone and desolate man like myself, who has no
home, and scarcely a country, there is something indescribably touching in
the mere picture of the fireside, and the family gathered round it, talking
over little homely cares and canvassing the changes of each day’s fortune.
I could sit here half the night and listen to Atlee telling how you lived,
and the sort of things that interested you.’
‘So that you’d actually like to look at us?’
Donogan’s eyes grew glassy, and his lips trembled, but he could not utter a
word.
‘So you shall, then,’ cried Dick resolutely. ‘We’ll start to-morrow by the
early train. You’ll not object to a ten miles’ walk, and we’ll arrive for
dinner.’
‘Do you know who it is you are inviting to your father’s house? Do you know
that I am an escaped convict, with a price on my head this minute? Do you
know the penalty of giving me shelter, or even what the law calls comfort?’
‘I know this, that in the heart of the Bog of Allen, you’ll be far safer
than in the city of Dublin; that none shall ever learn who you are, nor, if
they did, is there one--the poorest in the place--would betray you.’
‘It is of you, sir, I’m thinking, not of me,’ said Donogan calmly.
‘Don’t fret yourself about us. We are well known in our county, and above
suspicion. Whenever you yourself should feel that your presence was like to
be a danger, I am quite willing to believe you’d take yourself off.’
‘You judge me rightly, sir, and I am proud to see it; but how are you to
present me to your friends?’
‘As a college acquaintance--a friend of Atlee’s and of mine--a gentleman
who occupied the room next me. I can surely say that with truth.’
‘And dined with you every day since you knew him. Why not add that?’
He laughed merrily over this conceit, and at last Donogan said, ‘I’ve a
little kit of clothes--something decenter than these--up in Thomas Street,
No. 13, Mr. Kearney; the old house Lord Edward was shot in, and the safest
place in Dublin now, because it is so notorious. I’ll step up for them this
evening, and I’ll be ready to start when you like.’
‘Here’s good fortune to us, whatever we do next,’ said Kearney, filling
both their glasses; and they touched the brims together, and clinked them
before they drained them.