"Ay, or like that young gentleman's there," said Father Neal, with the tone of a man p.r.o.nouncing upon what he understood. "I watched him to-day at dinner, and I saw that every remark he made was shrewd and acute, and that whenever the subject was new to him, he fell into it as he went on talking, picking up his facts while he seemed to be discussing them!

Take my word for it, gentlemen, he 'll do!"

"He does n't know much about flax, anyhow," muttered old Hayes.

"He took his punch like a man," said Brierley, bearing testimony on a point where his evidence was sure to have weight.

"He'll do!" said Father Neal once more, and still more authoritatively than before.

"Joe carried away every premium from him," said old Nelligan, with a degree of irritation that proclaimed how little he enjoyed the priest's eulogy of his guest.

"I know he did, sir; and no man has a higher respect for your son's great abilities than myself; but here 's how it is, Mr. Nelligan,"--and he drew himself up like a man about to deliver a profound opinion,--"here 's how it is. The mind that can master abstract science is one thing; the faculties that can deal with fellow-mortals is another. This world is not a University!"

"The Lord be praised for that same!" cried old Hayes, "or I 'm afraid I 'd fare badly in it."

"To unite both descriptions of talent," resumed the priest, oratorically, "is the gift of but few."

"My 'august leader' has them," broke in Magennis.

"Show me the man that can deal with men!" said Father Neal, dictatorially.

"Women is twice as hard to deal with!" cried old Hayes. "I 'll back Nancy Drake against any man in the barony."

"Faith, and I remember her a pretty woman," said Brierley, who would gladly have enticed the conversation out of its graver character.

"A prettier girl than Mary Martin herself!" continued the inexorable Brierley, for the company did not appear to approve of his diversion.

"We are now discussing politics,--grave questions of state, sir," said Father Neal,--"for we have come to times when even the most indifferent and insignificant amongst us cannot refrain feeling an interest in the progress of our country. And when I see a fine young man like that there, as one may say going a-begging for a party, I tell you that we are fools--worse than fools--if we don't secure him."

"Do you mean for the borough?" asked Nelligan.

"I do, sir,--I mean for the borough!"

"Not till we have consulted my 'august leader,' I hope," broke in Magennis.

"I'm for managing our own affairs ourselves," said the priest. "What we want is a man of our own; and if that young gentleman there will take the pledges we should propose, I don't know that we'd readily get the like of him."

The silence that now fell upon the party was ominous; it was plain that either the priest's proposition was not fully acquiesced in, or that the mode of announcing it was too abrupt. Perhaps this latter appeared the case to his own eyes, for he was the first to speak.

"Of course what I have said now is strictly among ourselves, and not to be mentioned outside of this room; for until my friend Dan Nelligan here consents to take the field against the Martin interest, there is no chance of opening the borough. Let him once agree to _that_, and the member for Oughterard will be his own nominee."

"Do you really think so?" asked Nelligan, eagerly.

"I know it, sir; and every gentleman at this table knows it."

A strong chorus in a.s.sent murmured around the board.

"It would be a great struggle," muttered Nelligan.

"And a great victory!" said the priest.

"What a deal of money, too, it would cost!"

"You have the money, Dan Nelligan; and let me tell you one thing,"--here he leaned over his chair and whispered some words in the other's ear.

Old Nelligan's face flushed as he listened, and his eyes sparkled with intense excitement.

"If I thought _that_--if I only thought that, Father Rafferty--I 'd spend half my fortune on it to-morrow."

"It's as true as I'm a living man," said the priest, solemnly; and then with a motion of his hand gestured caution, for Ma.s.singbred was slowly ascending the steps, and about to enter the room.

With an instinctive readiness all his own, he saw in the embarra.s.sed and conscious looks around that he had himself been the object of their discussion, and with the same shrewdness he detected their favorable feeling towards him.

"I have made them my own!" muttered he to himself.

"He 'll do our work well!" said the priest in his heart.

CHAPTER XI. YOUNG NELLIGAN, AS INTERPRETED IN TWO WAYS.

"I rather like that young Nelligan," said Martin, the day after Joseph had made his first appearance at dinner. "He talks pleasantly, and nothing of a pedant, as I half dreaded he might be."

"I thought his manner respectful, and very proper for his station," said Lady Dorothea, with an air of dignity.

"He spoke of politics, too, with less of prejudice, less of cla.s.s bitterness, than I could have expected."

"Some policy, perhaps, in that," remarked her Ladyship.

"Possibly!" said Martin, with a careless shrug of the shoulders.

"He was in a measure on his trial amongst us, and felt the importance of making a favorable first impression."

"It was more trouble than his father would have taken, then," said Martin, smiling. "Old Dan, as they call him, is not a very conciliating personage."

"I cannot imagine that the disposition of such a person is a matter of much moment. Does n't the man deal in tea, candles, and such like?"

"That he does, and in loans, and in mortgages, too; not to add that he exercises a very considerable share of influence in his town of Oughterard."

"A very shocking feature of the time we live in!" exclaimed Lady Dorothea.

"So it may be; but there it is,--just like the wet weather, and the typhus, and the sheep-rot, and fifty other disagreeable things one can't help."

"But at least they can avoid recurring to them in conversation, sir.

There is no necessity to open the window when the look-out is a dreary one."

Martin made no reply, and a pause of some moments ensued.

"What arrangement did you come to with him about his party in the borough?" said she at last.