ohn Marsh, the Ulster people took great pride in
Parnell, even the bitterest Orangeman among them, because he was a man,
an' not a gas-bag like Dan O'Connell. Of course, he was a
Protestant!... But he couldn't keep from nuzzlin' over a woman ... an'
up went everything. An' Randy Churchill ... I mind him well, a
flushed-lookin' man.... I heard him talkin' in Belfast one time ... he
bust up everything because he would not control himself. If he'd been a
gentleman ... but he wasn't ... the Churchills never were.... Nor was
Parnell. Well, now, I don't want Henry to go to bits like that. Henry's
got power of some sort, John ... I don't know what sort ... but there's
power in him ... and I want it to come out right. He's the sort that'll
go soft on women if he's not careful. He'd be off after every young,
nice-lookin' girl he meets if he were let ... an' God knows what the end
of that would be. There's this girl, Sheila Morgan ... you've seen
her?..."

Marsh nodded his head, and said, "She comes to the Language class."

"Well, you know the sort she is: fine, healthy, good-lookin', lusty
girl. That sort stirs the blood in a lad like Henry. I want him to get
into the state in which he can look at her an' lave her alone! Do you
follow me?"

"Yes."

"He's not in that state now. He's soft, oh, he's damned soft. Look here,
John Marsh, do you know what I think about young fellows? I think
they're the finest things in the world. Youth, I mean. An' I figure it
out this way, that Youth has the right to three things: love an' work
an' fun; an' it ought to have them about equally. The only use of old
people like me is to see that the young 'uns don't get the proportions
all wrong, too much love an' not enough work, or the other way round.
Henry's very likely to get them all wrong, an' I want to see that he
doesn't. Now, you understand me, don't you? I'm a long-winded man, an'
it's hard to make out what I'm drivin' at, but that can't be helped.
Everybody has a nature, an' I have mine, an' bedam to it!"

"What do you want me to do?" Marsh asked, putting his exercises
together.

"I want you to try an' put some big wish into his heart," Mr. Quinn
replied. "Try an' make him as eager about Irelan' as you are. I want him
to spend himself for something that's bigger than he is, instead of
spendin' himself on something that's smaller than he is."

"But why not do that yourself, Mr. Quinn?"

Mr. Quinn got up from his chair and walked abo