Page:Lesbia Newman - Dalton - 1889.djvu/308

 said Lesbia, advancing to shake hands with her acquaintance of Killarney. ‘So good of you to run down; I hope you'll find Dulham and Frogmore endurable till to-morrow.’

‘Purgatory and h—hem! would be endurable, with you to lighten them, Miss Newman,’ answered the Irishman.

‘But I hope you don’t regard Dulham and Frogmore in that light?’ said Lesbia, laughing.

‘No, no, not at all. Binns’s is a very comfortable little inn,—always bicycling men there to smoke and talk with you in the evening. And I should be glad to stay longer, but my engagements forbid.’

‘Well, Mr O’Logan,’ resumed Lesbia, ‘how your forebodings have come true!’

‘And sorry we are for it, at the bottom of our hearts, I can assure you,’ he returned. ‘True, English and Americans are the same race, still the new country cannot be as the old, any more than a second wife or husband can be as the first. But what were we to do? The bigoted stupidity of your majority here prevailed over your intelligent minority, and the result—Queenstown! Well, the lesson won’t have to be repeated, that’s a little comfort. The world in general is beginning to shake down on new couches, and after all, things might have been a great deal worse. Introduce me, will you kindly, Miss Newman, to your American friend; I should like to hear what she thinks about Yankeefied Ireland.’

The introduction was made, and Letitia soon engaged in earnest conversation with her new acquaintance. In reply to his direct question, she said,—

‘I guess, sir, we shall keep you as long as you want, and no longer. Keeping the Irish against their will is like treading down an octopus, or poking smoke out of a door with a fork.’

‘You are discreet, Miss Blemmyketts,’ answered O’ Logan.