"No--but--don't let's quarrel, my dear old fellow--now, that perhaps,
perhaps we may never meet again--but I can't bear to hear the Irish abused.
They're noble, enthusiastic, generous fellows. If we English had half as
warm hearts, we shouldn't be as we are now; and O'Connor's a glorious
man, I tell you. Just think of him, the descendant of the ancient kings,
throwing away his rank, his name, all he had in the world, for the cause of
the suffering millions!"
"That's a most aristocratic speech, John," said I, smiling, in spite of my
gloom. "So you keep a leader because he's descended from ancient kings, do
you? I should prefer him just because he was not--just because he was a
working man, and come of workmen's blood. We shall see whether he's stanch
after all. To my mind, little Cuffy's worth a great deal more, as far as
earnestness goes."
"Oh! Cuffy's a low-bred, uneducated fellow."
"Aristocrat again, John!" said I, as we went up-stairs to Kelly's room. And
Crossthwaite did not answer.
There was so great a hubbub inside Kelly's room, of English, French, and
Irish, all talking at once, that we knocked at intervals for full five
minutes, unheard by the noisy crew; and I, in despair, was trying the
handle, which was fast, when, to my astonishment, a heavy blow was struck
on the panel from the inside, and the point of a sharp instrument driven
right through, close to my knees, with the exclamation--
"What do you think o' that, now, in a policeman's bread-basket?"
"I think," answered I, as loud as I dare, and as near the dangerous door,
"if I intended really to use it, I wouldn't make such a fool's noise about
it.
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