gher, "to include posters and advertisements in
the paper. I'll be losing money on it."

"You'll not be losing much," said Dr. O'Grady, "but we'll say L3. That
will make--let me see----"

He added up his column of figures and then checked the result by adding
them downwards.

"That comes to L100 3s. 6d.," he said, "and we've not put down anything
for postage. You'll have to get your nephew to knock another 10s. off
the price of the statue. After all, when he said L81, he must have
been prepared to take L80, and he'll have to cut the inscription for us
without extra charge."

"He might," said Doyle, "if we approached him on the subject."

"He'll have to," said Dr. O'Grady, "for L100 is all we've got, and we
can't run into debt."

"He did say," said Doyle, "that 3d. a letter was the regular charge for
cutting inscriptions."

"We'll make it short," said Dr. O'Grady. "We won't stick him for more
than about 10s. over the inscription. After all long inscriptions
are vulgar. I propose that Mr. Thaddeus Gallagher, as the only
representative of the press among us, be commissioned to write the
inscription."

"We couldn't have a better man," said Father McCormack.

"I'll not do it," said Gallagher. He had a solid reason for refusing
the honour offered to him. The writer of an inscription at the base of a
statue is almost bound to make some statement about the person whom the
statue represents.

"You will now, Thady," said Doyle, "and you'll do it well."

"I will not," said Gallagher. "Let the doctor do it himself."

"There's no man in Connacht better fit to draw up an inscription of the
kind," said Father McCormack, "than Mr. Gallagher."

Thady Gallagher was susceptible to flattery. He would have liked very
well to draw up an inscription for the statue, modelling it on the
resolutions which he was accustomed to propose at political meetings
in favour of' Home Rule. But he was faced with what seemed to him an
insuperable difficulty. He did not know who General John Regan was.

"Let the doctor do it," he said reluctantly.

"Whoever does it," said Doyle, "it'll have to be done at once. My nephew
said that on account of the way we are pressed for time he'd be glad if
the words of the inscription was wired to him to-day."

"It would, maybe, be better," said Father McCor-mack, "if you were to
do it, doctor. We'll all be sorry that the words don't come from the
accomplished pen of our respected fellow citizen, Mr. Gal