Page:Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, and Playlets of the War.djvu/255

 Flaherty's left. I'll give her a good talking to when she comes. I'm not going to stand any of her nonsense.

It's not a bit of use, sir. She says all the English generals is Irish. She says all the English poets and great men was Irish. She says the English never knew how to read their own books until we taught them. She says we're the lost tribes of the house of Israel and the chosen people of God. She says that the goddess Venus, that was born out of the foam of the sea, came up out of the water in Killiney Bay off Bray Head. She says that Moses built the seven churches, and that Lazarus was buried in Glasnevin.

Bosh! How does she know he was? Did you ever ask her?

I did, sir, often.

And what did she say?

She asked me how did I know he wasn't, and fetched me a clout on the side of my head.

But have you never mentioned any famous Englishman to her, and asked her what she had to say about him?

The only one I could think of was Shakespeare, sir; and she says he was born in Cork.

[exhausted]. Well, I give it up [he throws himself into the nearest chair]. The woman is&mdash;Oh, well! No matter.

[sympathetically]. Yes, sir: she's pigheaded and obstinate: there's no doubt about it. She's like the English: they think there's no one like themselves. It's the same with the Germans, though they're educated and ought to know better. You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

Still, we&mdash;