"But I never took any part in the conflict you speak of; I lived out of it,--away from it."

"And are therefore, exactly suited to repair a breach to which you never contributed. I a.s.sure you, my boy, the gentry--and I know them well--will meet you more than half-way. There is not a prouder fellow living than Martin there; he has throughout his whole life held his head higher than any man in our county, and yet he is quite ready to make advances towards you. Of course, what I say is strictly between ourselves; but my opinion is, that, if you like it, you may be as intimate up there as ever you were at old Hayes's, at the Priory."

"Then, what would you have me do?" asked Nelligan.

"Just pay a visit there this morning; say that you are curious to see that great picture,--and it is a wonderful thing, if only for the size of it; or that you 'd like to have a look at Arran Island out of the big telescope at the top of the house; anything will serve as a reason, and then,--why, leave the rest to chance."

"But really, Maurice, I see no sufficient cause for all this," said the youth, timidly.

"Look now, Joe," said the other, drawing his chair closer to him, and talking in the low and measured tone of a confidence,--"look now, you're not going to pa.s.s your life as the successor to that excellent man, Dan Nelligan, of Oughterard, selling hides and ropes and ten-penny-nails, and making an estate the way old ladies make a patchwork quilt. You'll be able to start in life with plenty of tin and plenty of talent; you'll have every advantage that money and education can give, and only one drawback on your road to success,--the mere want of blood,--that dash of birth which forms the only real freemasonry in this world. Now mind me, Joe; the next best thing to having this oneself is to live and a.s.sociate with those who have; for in time, what with catching up their prejudices and learning their ways, you come to feel very much as they do; and, what is better still, they begin to regard you as one of themselves."

"But if I do not ambition this,--if I even reject it?" said the other, impatiently.

"Then all I say is that Trinity College may make wonderful scholars, but turns out mighty weak men of the world!"

"Perhaps so!" said Nelligan, dryly, and with a half-nettled air.

"I suppose you fancy there would be something like slavery in such a position?" said Scanlan, with a derisive look.

"I know it!" responded the other, firmly.

"Then what do you say to the alternative,--and there is but one only open to you,--what do you think of spending your life as a follower of Daniel O'Connell; of being reminded every day and every hour that you have not a privilege nor a place that he did n't win for you; that he opened Parliament to you, and made you free of every guild where men of ability rise to honor? Ay, Joe! and what 's a thousand times worse,--knowing it all to be true, my boy! Take service with him once, and if you leave him you 're a renegade; remember that, and bethink you that there's no saying what crotchet he may have in store for future agitation."

"But I never purposed any such part for myself," broke in Nelligan.

"Never mind, it will fall to your lot for all that, if you don't quickly decide against it. What's Simmy Crow staring at? Look at him down there, he's counting every window in the street like a tax-gatherer." And he pointed to the artist, who, shading his eyes with one hand, stood peering at every house along the little street. "What's the matter, Simmy?" cried he, opening the cas.e.m.e.nt.

"It's a house I'm looking for, down here, and I forget which it is; bother them, they 're all so like at this time of the year when they 're empty."

"Are you in search of a lodging, Simmy?"

"No, it is n't that!" said the other, curtly, and still intent on his pursuit. "Bad luck to the architect that would n't vary what they call the 'facade,' and give one some chance of finding the place again."

"Who is it you want, man?"

"Faix, and I don't even know that same!" replied the artist; "but"--and he lowered his voice to a whisper as he spoke--"he's an elegant study,-- as fine a head and face and as beautiful a beard as ever you saw. I met him at Kyle's Wood a week ago, begging; and what with his fine forehead and deep-set blue eyes, his long white hair, and his great s.h.a.ggy eyebrows, I said to myself: 'Belisarius,' says I, 'by all that's grand,--a Moses, a Marino Faliero, or a monk in a back parlor discoursing to an old skull and a vellum folio,--any one of these,' says I, 'not to speak of misers, money-lenders, or magicians, as well;' and so I coaxed him down here on Sat.u.r.day last, and put him somewhere to sleep, with a good supper and a pint of spirits, and may I never, if I know where I left him."

"Three days ago?"

"Just so; and worse than all, I shut up the place quite dark, and only made a hole in the roof, just to let a fine Rembrandt light fall down on his head. Oh, then, it's no laughing matter, Maurice! Sure if anything happened to him--"

"Your life wouldn't be worth sixpence before any jury in the county."

"Begad! it's what I was thinking; if they wouldn't take it as a practical joke."

"You're looking for ould Brennan!" cried a weather-beaten hag; "but he's gone to Oughterard for a summons. You'll pay dear for your tricks this time, anyhow."

"Come up here, Simmy, and never mind her," said Scanlan; then, turning to Nelligan, he added, "There's not such a character in the county!

"I want my friend, Mr. Nelligan, here--Mr. Nelligan--Mr. Crow--I want him, I say, to come up and have a look at the great 'Historical '--eh, Simmy!--would n't it astonish him?"

"Are you a votary of art, sir?" asked Crow, modestly.

"I 've never seen what could be called a picture, except those portraits in the College Examination Hall might be deemed such."

"Indeed, and they're not worthy the name, sir. Flood, mayhap, is like, but he's hard and stiff, and out of drawing; and Lord Clare is worse.

It's in the Low Countries you 'd see portraits, real portraits! men that look down on you out of the canvas, as if _you_ were the intruder there, and that _they_ were waiting to know what brought you. A st.u.r.dy old Burgomaster, for instance, with a red-brown beard and a fierce pair of eyes, standing up firm as a rock on a pair of legs that made many a drawbridge tremble as he walked home to dinner on the Grand Ca.n.a.l, at Rotterdam, after finishing some mighty bargain for half a spice island, or paying a million of guilders down as a dowry for that flaxen-haired, buxom damsel in the next frame. Look at the dimples in her neck, and mark the folds in her satin. Is n't she comely, and calm, and haughty, and house-wifery, all together? Mind her foot, it isn't small, but see the shape of it, and the way it presses the ground--ay, just so--my service to you; but you are one there 's no joking with, even if one was alone with you." And he doffed his hat, and bowed obsequiously as he spoke.

"You're an enthusiast for your art?" said Nelligan, interested by the unmistakable sincerity of his zeal.

"I am, sir," was the brief reply.

"And the painter's is certainly a glorious career."

"If for nothing else," burst in Crow, eagerly, "that it can make of one like me--poor, ignorant, and feeble, as I am--a fellow-soldier in the same army with Van d.y.k.e and t.i.tian and Velasquez--to know that in something that they thought, or hoped, or dared, or tried to do, I too have my share! You think me presumptuous to say this; you are sneering at such a creature as Simmy Crow for the impudence of such a boast, but it's in humility I say it, ay, in downright abject humility; for I 'd rather have swept out Rembrandt's room, and settled his rough boards on Cuyp's easel, than I 'd be a--a--battle-axe guard, or a lord-in-waiting, or anything else you like, that's great and grand at court."

"I envy you a pursuit whose reward is in the practice rather than in the promise," said Nelligan, thoughtfully. "Men like myself labor that they may reach some far-away land of rewards and successes, and bear the present that they may enjoy the future."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 114]

"Ay, but it will repay you well, by all accounts," said Crow. "Miss Mary told us last night how you had beat every one out of the field, and had n't left a single prize behind you."

"Who said this?" cried Joe, eagerly.

"Miss Mary,--Miss Martin. She said it was a credit to us all of the west, here, that there was one, at least, from Galway, who could do something besides horse-racing and c.o.c.k-fighting--"

"So she did," said Scanlan, interrupting, with some confusion. "She said somebody had told her of young Nelligan. She called you 'Young Nelligan.'"

"No, no; it was to myself she said it, and the words were, 'Mr. Joseph Nelligan;' and then, when her uncle said, 'Why don't we know him? '--"

"My dear Simmy, you make a most horrible confusion when you attempt a story,--out of canvas. Mind, I said out of canvas; for I confess that in your grand 'Historical' the whole incident is admirably detailed. I 've just said to my friend here, that he has a great pleasure before him in seeing that picture."

"If you 'll do me the honor to look at it," said Crow, bowing courteously, "when you come to dinner to-day."

"Attend to _me_, Joe," said Scanlan, pa.s.sing an arm within Nelligan's, and leading him away to another part of the room; "that fellow is little better than an idiot. But I was just going to tell you what Martin said.

'You are intimate with young Nelligan,' said he; 'you know him well, and you could possibly do without awkwardness what with more formality might be difficult. Don't you think, then, that he would possibly waive ceremony--'"

"I must be off," broke in Crow, hastily. "I have a sitting at twelve o'clock, so I hope we shall see you at seven, Mr. Nelligan; your note said seven, sharp." And without waiting for more, he seized his hat and hurried down the stairs.

"A downright fool!" said Scanlan, angrily. "Mr. Martin said he 'd write to you, if--if--if, in fact, you stood upon that punctilio; but that he'd be all the better pleased if you 'd just accept acquaintance as freely as he offered it, and come and dine there to-day, like a friend."

"Is n't there, or has there not been, some difference between him and my father?" asked Joe.

"A trifle,--and a mistake; the kind of thing that two men of calm heads and common sense could have settled in five minutes, and which, to say the truth, Martin was right in throughout. It's all pa.s.sed and over now, however, and it would be worse than foolish to revive it. There 's Miss Martin!" cried he, "and I have a word to say to her;" and hurried off without waiting for more. As he pa.s.sed from the room, however, a letter fell from his pocket; and as Nelligan stooped to take it up, he saw that it was addressed to himself. He looked hesitatingly at it for a moment or two, scarcely knowing whether or not he ought to break the seal. "It was meant for me, at all events," said he, and opened it. The contents were as follows;--

"Mr. Martin presents his respects to Mr. Joseph Nelligan, and will feel happy if--excusing the want of formal introduction--Mr. Nelligan will admit him to the honor of acquaintance, and give him the pleasure of his society at dinner, to-morrow, at seven o'clock. Mr. Martin does not hesitate to say that to accept this unceremonious proposal will be felt as a very great favor indeed by him and his family."

"What does Scanlan mean by all this? Why not have handed me this note at once?" was Nelligan's question to himself, as he descended the stairs and gained the street. He was not sorry that Scanlan was not in sight, and hastened homeward to think over this strange communication. Joe well knew that his mother was not peculiarly endowed with worldly wisdom or acuteness; and yet such was his need of counsel at the moment, that he determined, at least in part, to lay the case before her. "She can certainly tell me," said he, "if there be any reason why I should decline this proposal." And with this resolve he entered the cottage.