not on
that account cease to regard her as his property. He had hopes, I
fancy, that Bob Power would be killed in some fight with a Custom
House officer. Marion, on the other hand, was vaguely afraid that
either Bob or I would get injured while rioting in Belfast. That was
her reason for going with me.

I went because I received on Friday evening a very urgent letter from
Lady Moyne. She and Lord Moyne had just arrived in Belfast, and her
letter was sent to me by a special messenger on a motor bicycle. She
wished me to attend an extraordinary meeting of the "Ulster Defence
Committee" which, in defiance of our strong sabbatarian feeling, was
to be held on Sunday afternoon.

"We elected you a member of the committee at a meeting held yesterday
in London," she wrote, "so you have a perfect right to be present and
to vote."

That meeting must have been held after McNeice, Malcolmson and Cahoon
returned to Ireland. They regard me as a Laodicean in the matter of
Home Rule, and would never have consented to my sitting on a committee
which controlled, or at all events was supposed to control, the
actions of the Ulster leaders.

"It's most important, dear Lord Kilmore," the letter went on, "that
you should be present on Sunday. Your well-known moderation will have
a most steadying influence, and if it should come to a matter of
voting, your vote may be absolutely necessary."

After getting a letter of that kind I could not well refuse to go to
Belfast. Even without the letter I should, I think, have gone. I was
naturally anxious to see what was going to happen.

I spent my time in the train reading several different accounts of an
important Nationalist meeting held the day before in a village in
County Clare, the name of which I have unfortunately forgotten. Three
of the chief Nationalist orators were there, men quite equal to
Babberly in their mastery of the art of public speaking. I read all
their speeches; but that was not really necessary. None of them said
anything which the other two did not say, and none of them left out
anything which the other two had said.

They all began by declaring that under Home Rule all Irishmen should
receive equal consideration and be treated with equal respect. They
all looked forward to the day when they would be walking about the
premises at present occupied by the Bank of Ireland in Dublin with
their arms round Babberly's neck. The dearest wish of their hearts--so
they all said, a