matter,'
'Oh!' says he. 'That's the way of it, is it? I'm glad to hear of it. The
more of the stock of the old General there are in the world the better.'
Well, when I seen him so pleased as all that, I thought it would be no
harm to please him more. 'It's twins,' I said, 'and what's more the both
of them is boys,' 'Take me to see the father,' says he. 'I'll be able to
see him anyway. I'd like to shake him by the hand.'"

"Has he seen young Kerrigan?" said Dr. O'Grady.

"He has not; but he won't rest easy till he does. I wanted to run round
and tell young Kerrigan the way things are, so as he'd be ready when
the gentleman came. But Doyle said it would be better for me to tell you
what had happened before worse came of it."

"Doyle was perfectly right Kerrigan would stand over your story all
right as long as he could, but in the end he'd have had to produce the
twins. That's the awkward part. If you hadn't said twins we might have
managed. But there isn't a pair in the town."

"Couldn't you telegraph to Dublin?" said the Major. "For a man of your
resource, O'Grady, mere twins ought not to prove a hopeless obstacle. I
should think that one of the hospitals where they go in for that kind of
thing would be quite glad to let you have a brace of babies in or about
the same age."

O'Grady knew that this suggestion was not meant to be helpful. The Major
had an objectionable habit of indulging in heavy sarcasm. He turned on
him sharply.

"You'd better go home, Major. When you try to be facetious you
altogether cease to be useful. You know perfectly well that there's
no use talking about importing babies. What would we do with them
afterwards? You couldn't expect young Kerrigan to keep them."

"I offered to go home some time ago," said the Major, "and you wouldn't
let me. Now that I've heard about young Kerrigan's twins I mean to stop
where I am and see what happens."

"Very well, Major. Just as you like. As long as you don't upset Billing
by rolling up any of those heavy jokes of yours against him I don't
mind. Here we are. I expect Doyle has Billing in the bar trying to
pacify him with whisky. You'd better stay outside, Thady."

"I'd be glad of a drop then," said Gallagher wistfully. "After all the
talking I did this afternoon----"

"Oh, go in if you like," said Dr. O'Grady. "Probably the safest thing
for you to do is to get drunk. Here's Billing crossing the street He's
just come out of Kerrigan's shop. Why on ear