she is. If you're going up to see her--"

"I would," said Bob, "if I thought she wouldn't be angry with me."

"She's nervous," I said, "and excited; but she didn't seem angry."

Just outside the town I met Crossan and, very much to my surprise,
McNeice walking with him. Crossan handed me a letter. I put it into my
pocket and greeted McNeice.

"I did not know you were here," I said. "When did you come?"

"Last night," said McNeice. "Crossan brought me on his motor."

"Were you in time for the scrimmage?"

"You'd maybe better read the letter I've given you, my lord," said
Crossan.

"If I'd been there," said McNeice, "your nephew would probably be dead
now. In my opinion he ought to be."

"The letter I've just given your lordship," said Crossan, "is an
important one."

"I'm sure it is," I said. "But I haven't time to read it now."

"What's in it, my lord, is this. I'm resigning the management of your
business here, and the sooner you're suited with a new man the
better."

"If my nephew Godfrey has been worrying you, Crossan," I said, "I'll
take steps--"

"It's not that, my lord. For all the harm his talk ever did me I'd
stay on. But--"

He looked at McNeice as if asking permission to say more.

"Political business," said McNeice.

"Of course," I said, "if it's a matter of politics, everything must
give way to politics. But I'm very sorry to lose you, Crossan. My
business affairs--"

"You'll have no business affairs left, my lord, if the Home Rule Bill
passes."

"But you're going to stop it," I said.

"We are," said Crossan.

He certainly believed that he was. At the present moment he believes
that he did stop it.

I found Godfrey propped up in bed. His face had a curiously unbalanced
appearance owing to the way in which one side of his jaw was swollen.
Bob Power's original blow must have been a hard one. I noticed when he
spoke that one of his eye teeth was broken off short. He began to pour
out his complaint the moment I entered the room.

"A murderous assault was made on me last night," he said. "After I
left your house I walked down--"

"Don't talk if it hurts you, Godfrey," I said.

He was speaking in a muffled way which led me to think that the inside
of his mouth must be nearly as much swollen as the outside.

"That fellow Power had a band of ruffians with him. If he had fought
fair I shouldn't have minded, but--"

"What were you doing," I said, "to make him attack you? He must hav