During all that long
month ye were there did ye meet one Englishman that ever saw a
joke?"
"Not many, father. Cousin Alaric couldn't."
"Did ye meet ONE?"
"I did, father."
"Ye did?"
"I did."
"THERE was a man whose friendship ye might treasure."
"I do treasure it, father."
"Ye do?"
"Yes, father."
"Who was it?"
"Jerry, father."
O'Connell took a long breath and sighed.
Jerry! Always Jerry!
"I thried several jokes on him, an' he saw most of 'em."
"I'd like to see this paragon, faith."
"I wish ye could, father. Indade I do. Ye'd be such good friends."
"WE'D be friends? Didn't ye say he was a GINTLEMAN?"
"He sez a GENTLEMAN is a man who wouldn't willingly hurt anybody
else. And he sez, as well, that it doesn't matther what anybody was
born, if they have that quality in them they're just as much
gintleman as the people with ancestors an' breedin'. An' he said
that the finest gintleman he ever met was a CABMAN."
"A cabman, Peg?"
"Yes, faith--that's what he said. The cabman couldn't hurt anybody,
and so he was a gintlemaa."
"Did he mane it?"
"He meant everything he said--to ME."
"There isn't much the matther with him, I'm thinkin'."
"There's nothin' the matther with him, father.
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