oing to make a lady of her, attending on him is the
one thing that she will do."

"Then you needn't bother your head about anything else."

CHAPTER VIII

There are men in the world, a great many of them--who are capable of
managing details with thoroughness and efficiency. These men make
admirable lieutenants and fill subordinate positions so well that
towards the end of their lives they are allowed to attend full dress
evening parties with medals and stars hung round their necks or pinned
on their coats. There are also a good many men who are capable
of conceiving great ideas and forming vast plans, but who have an
unconquerable aversion to anything in the way of a detail. These men
generally end their days in obscure asylums, possibly in workhouses,
and their ideas, after living for a while as subject matter for jests,
perish unrealised. There is also a third kind of man, fortunately a very
rare kind. He is capable of conceiving great ideas, and has besides
an insatiable delight in working out details. He may end his days as
a victorious general, or even as an emperor. If he prefers a less
ostentatious kind of reward, he will die a millionaire.

Dr. Lucius O'Grady belonged to this third class. In the face of Doyle's
objection to his expenditure on posters, he was capable of conceiving
on the spur of the moment and without previous meditation, the audacious
and magnificent plan of bringing the Lord-Lieutenant to Ballymoy and
wrestling from a reluctant treasury a sufficient sum of money to build a
third pier on the beach below the town. There may have been other men in
Ireland capable of making such a plan. There was certainly no one
else who would have set himself, as Dr. O'Grady did, with tireless
enthusiasm, to work out the details necessary to the plan's success.

As soon as Doyle left him he mounted his bicycle and rode out to the
Greggs' home. Mr. Gregg, being the District Inspector of Police, was
usually a very busy man. But the Government, though a hard task-master
in the case of minor officials, does not insist on anyone inspecting or
being inspected on Sunday afternoons. Mr. Gregg had taken advantage of
the Government's respect for revealed religion, and had gone out with a
fishing rod to catch trout. Mrs. Gregg was at home. Being a bride of not
more than three months' standing she had nothing particular to do, and
was yawning rather wearily over the fashion-plates of a ladies' paper.
She seemed u