"shot's a good dog," patsy kenny was wont to observe in his slow way, "an' his father before him was a good dog. yet i wouldn't be sayin' but what ould shot, the grandfather, wasn't the pick o' the basket."
old shot had lived for five years after sir shawn o'gara's marriage to mary creagh, which had sorely offended and alienated mrs. comerford, who had brought up the girl from childhood and loved her like a daughter. when he had died it was by lady o'gara's wish that the dog was buried in the grass-plot just outside the drawing-room window. she could see the mound from the window recess, where she sat to write her letters, in which she kept her work-table, the book she was reading, and various other belongings; she had screened it off so that the deep recess was like a little room to itself.
"when i look up and see the mound instead of shot it always hurts me," she had said in early days. "but then i feel that he likes to be near."
"he was so fond of you, mary," her husband often said, "fonder even, i believe, than he was of me."
"oh, no, shawn, not that. no one could take your place with shot. but he accepted me, dear old dog, and i am very proud of it."
that was before shot's son had aspired to take his father's place, while he was still indeed one of a likely litter of puppies in the stable-yard, just beginning to be cast off by judy who had other things to do in a sporting autumn besides looking after a lot of sprawling, big-pawed puppies, who were quite independent of her and becoming rather unmanageable.
it was also before old shot had begun to return to his friends as nothing more tangible than a padding of soft paws on the stairs, a movement under the dining-table, where he had been accustomed to lie in life, a sound of a dog lying down with a sigh, or getting up from the hearthrug before the billiard-room fire.
these manifestations had sometimes perturbed visitors to castle talbot; but intimates at the house had come to accept as its owners did these sounds of a presence that was never seen. no one was any longer incommoded by it except young shot, who would get up uncomfortably and lie at a distance, his nose on his paws, regarding with a wistful melancholy the place from which he had been driven forth.
"meself an' ould shot'll never lave the master till we have to," patsy
kenny had said to lady o'gara, to whom he was as much attached as old
shot had been.
"me an' shot'll stick by the master," he had often said in his own mind, and sometimes aloud, when he was out in the paddocks with the horses and there was no human ear to listen to him. then he would have a vision of a young man in a grey suit, slender and elegant, face downward on the grass and he calling out to some one to forgive him. "sure god help him, he has suffered," he would add as the memory came to him.
patsy, who had been taking a short cut by the wood to the stable-yard when he had come upon that sight,—it was long ago—had gone away terrified and aching with pity for the misery he had surprised. sir shawn o'gara had interfered once to save little patsy from a beating and had been rewarded disproportionately by a silent ardent devotion, at which no one,—he himself least of all,—had ever guessed. patsy had liked mr. terence comerford too. he was handsomer, the people thought, than sir shawn, being golden-haired, blue-eyed and ruddy, and very big and broad-shouldered, with a jolly greeting for every one. many a time he had let patsy hold his horse and flung him a sixpence for it. the peasants had no eye for the beauty and distinction of sir shawn o'gara's looks, his elegant slenderness, the somewhat mournful depths of his eyes which were of so dark a grey that they were almost black. too foreign looking, the people pronounced him, their idea of foreigners being bounded by their knowledge of a greatly-daring italian organ-grinder who had once come over the mountains to killesky with a little red-coated monkey sitting a-top of the organ, to the great joy of the children. that had been a record rainy season, and the organ-grinder and the monkey had both sickened for the sun, and would have died if old lady o'gara, who was half-italian herself, had not heard the tale and sent the man back to his own country.
"he'd be askin' mr. terence to forgive him because maybe he was vexed wid him about poor bridyeen," patsy had often thought since. "an' maybe because miss mary creagh had always liked him better than mr. terence, though she was too much afraid of mrs. comerford, to say it. or maybe 'twas that he couldn't save him from spitfire. not but what she was kind enough, the crathur, if he hadn't took to floggin' her."
very rarely patsy thought on the man who had cursed him in the ditch that night long ago. he was only an accidental terror of the night crowded with terrors, from which patsy had reached his grandfather's door and tumbled in "about the flure" in a fainting condition. he had queer hazy memories that the old man was kind, that the two little eyes which had often blazed fury at him, were dim with tears. he did not know if he dreamt it or not that he had heard his grandfather telling the other old men around the turf fire that he, patsy, was a good little lad, but that he had to be strict with him to keep him good.
when he had got about again he had heard that sir shawn o'gara had been very ill, that the shock of his friend's death had been too much for him. then one day the old lady o'gara had come to the cottage on the edge of the bog to ask for him. it had got out that patsy had seen something of the terrible happening of that night, and she had been very gentle and friendly with him, and had asked him if he would not like to go to school; and afterwards what he would like to do.
he could see her delicate profile now if he closed his eyes, the olive skin, the deep velvety eyes, the red lips. even the country people did not deny lady o'gara beauty, of a foreign sort. though they would never admire her as they admired miss mary creagh.
soon after patsy had gone to school lady o'gara died, and a year later sir shawn and miss mary creagh were married. by this time patsy had become a favourite pupil with mr. o'connell, at the national schools, who thought that in time he might qualify for a "vit," seeing his love for animals; but perhaps mr. o'connell's liking for patsy was only because he found in him an equal mind with his own about animals, mr. o'connell's attachment to his dog, sambo, being a cause of laughter to most of his pupils. patsy had a happy time with mr. o'connell; but the necessary education for the veterinary profession in the matter of mere book-learning he seemed either unable or unwilling to acquire, so he went in time to the stables at castle talbot to qualify as he had coveted for the hereditary position of stud-groom. sir shawn, since he had married miss creagh, had taken to keeping racehorses; and patsy kenny had a way with horses. he was a natural solitary as regarded his kind. many a pretty girl had looked patsy's way invitingly, seeing in him a steady, sober boy who might be trusted not to spend his wages in drink, whose dreamy eyes and soft slow voice promised gentleness with a woman; but patsy never thought of the girls apparently. he was very fond of his master, but his great devotion was for lady o'gara who, as miss mary creagh, had dazzled him when she came and went at castle talbot, not forgetting if she met patsy to stop and speak with him. that devotion to miss mary, continued to lady o'gara, had perhaps spoilt patsy's chances of being happy after the manner of other men. he would have said himself, perhaps, that with the horses to think of he had no time to think about getting married. certainly he did not seem to find his bachelor state amiss. his little house, in the new block of stabling, white walled, red-roofed, painted with cross beams to its pointed gable, was kept with meticulous care. patsy did his own work. lady o'gara was right perhaps when she called him a natural celibate.
long, long ago old judy dowd and her granddaughter, bridyeen, had left killesky,—for america. they had not gone away with the drafts of boys and girls who went week after week during the spring weather, leaving beragh station on their way to liverpool with a great send-off from friends and relatives, ending, as the train went, with cries of lamentation that brought the other passengers to their carriage windows, curious or sympathetic, according to their natures.
no: judy dowd and bridyeen had gone off in an underhand manner, leaving mr. casey, the solicitor, to dispose of the public-house and effects. the neighbours had been rather indignant about it, and had made up their minds as to the reason of this unsportsmanlike flitting. but by the time they were saying to each other that judy dowd had a right not to be spoiling her grand-daughter, making her pretty for the eyes of gentlemen; that what could a girl want more than barney killeen, who had a farm and an outside car, if he was sixty itself? that there was no use humouring the fancies of girls: that they'd always known how it would end: finally that it was well bridyeen should be taken away before she made a scandal in the parish—by that time the dowds were no more than a name and a memory.
few people now remembered the old unhappy far-off things. judy dowd's public-house in killesky, which had been a very small affair, had made way for conneely's hotel. there was not much hotel about it, but there was quite a thriving shop, divided into two parts—one, general store, the other public. if you were a person of importance and called at conneely's for refreshment you had it in "the drawing-room" upstairs, where the misses conneely's drawings in chalk hung on the walls, and their photographs adorned the chimney-piece, while their school prizes were arranged neatly on the round table in the middle of the room, flanking the wax flowers under a glass shade which made the centre piece.
the miss conneelys had done well in the intermediate. their elder brother was a priest. father tom's photograph was in the centre of the chimney-piece a-top of the clock. they could play the piano and violin and had fortunes when the time came for them to marry. their mother would never have permitted them to serve in the bar nor even behind the drapery counter. they were black-haired, rosy, buxom girls, who set the fashions in killesky. there had been a sensation when nora conneely came back from dublin with a walking-stick, but after an amazed pause killesky—the young ladies of it,—broke out in walking-sticks.
there was enough positive about the conneelys, the priest, the prosperous self-satisfied girls, the managing capable mother, to make people feel that there had always been conneely's hotel in killesky. if the old people remembered julia dowd's little public-house with its thatched roof, the low ceiling and the fire of turf to which you could draw a chair while you had your drink, the little parlour beyond which was reserved for customers of a superior station, they did not talk about it.
inch too was shut up. mrs. comerford had gone away after mary creagh's engagement to sir shawn o'gara. she had taken it very ill,—as a slur to her dead son's memory. she had always been an austere, somewhat severe woman, but she had taken mary creagh from her dying mother's arms, a child of a few weeks old, had reared her as her own and been tender to her, with the surprising precious tenderness of a reserved, apparently cold nature. mrs. comerford had gone to italy and had never since returned. perhaps she would never come now, although the place was kept from going to rack and ruin by james clinch, the butler, and mrs. clinch, who had been cook and had married the butler after mrs. comerford had gone away.
all these things came back to patsy kenny in his solitary hours. he was very fond of sitting on a log or a stone between his strenuous working times, going over old days in his mind.
this june afternoon, rather wearied still by his struggle with mustapha, he was sitting on a block in front of his little house in the stable-yard. judy, a half-bred setter—the names of the animals at castle talbot were hereditary—was lying at his feet. the pigeons were pecking about him daintily. only judy's watchful, jealous eye prevented their flying on to his knee or his shoulder.
the memories unfolded themselves like the scenes of a cinematograph, slipping past his mind. he remembered bridyeen sweeney, whose delicate beauty used to draw the gentlemen to dowd's long ago. he contrasted her in his mind with nora conneely whom he had met that morning as he went to the post-office, wearing what he had heard called a merry widow hat, and a tight skirt, displaying open-work stockings and high-heeled shoes, a string of pearls about a neck generously displayed by the low blouse she was wearing, her right hand twirling the famous walking-stick.
"i dunno what at all came to bridyeen," he murmured to himself. "she was as pretty as a picture,—like a little rose she was, and so modest in all her ways. even my grandfather used to say there was nothing against bridyeen. i wouldn't have thought it of mr. terence either that he'd be tryin' to turn the little girl's head and he the mistress's cousin an' they as good as promised. i only hope master terence had time to repent, if the stories were true itself that the people told. sure maybe there was nothin' in it."
he had perhaps dozed off. he came awake suddenly to judy's snarling. judy never gave the alarm for nothing. a man had come into the stable-yard, quite obviously a tramp. behind him came a woman and a child of the same fraternity. the woman stood humbly in the wake of the man, and the boy kept close to her. the man was a bad-looking fellow, patsy said to himself. half-consciously he noticed the man's hands, wicked-looking hands, covered with hair, the nails stubby and broken. the long arms were like the arms of a monkey. his tattered coat was velveteen. patsy remembered to have seen the material on the game-keepers of a big estate in the next county.
"'ullo, matey," said this uninviting person, with an attempt at jocularity. "'ave you anythink to give a poor man out of a job?"
the truculent voice, with its attempt at oiliness, the small red eyes under the shock of hair, the thick purple lips, had an extraordinary effect on patsy. he hated the tramp, yet he felt a queer sick fear of him. once, when sir shawn had taken him to england for a big race, he had seen a dog destroy an adder, with the same mixture of half-terrified rage and loathing he was feeling now.
"there's nothing for you here," he said gruffly. "you don't look as if you had much taste for work."
then he looked beyond the tramp to the woman and child. she was decent, the poor creature, he thought. her poor rags were clean and mended. she had a shrinking, suffering air. the boy, who was about nine years old, seemed to cling to her as though in terror of the burly ruffian. he was pale and thin and even on this beautiful june day he looked cold.
patsy was suddenly gentle. he saw the glare in the tramp's eyes.
"here's a shillin' for you," he said. "i've no job you'd care about.
but the woman and the child might like a cup of tay."
"all right," said the tramp, placated. "tea's not in my way. i'll be back in 'arf a mo'. don't you be makin' love to my ol' woman."
he flicked his thumb and finger at the woman with an ugly jocularity: then went, with the tramp's shambling trot, out of the stable-yard the way he had come, down the back avenue which opened on to the road to killesky.