'Grady gets at
him."

"That's true, too," said Father McCormack, "and I don't mind telling you
that I've been keeping out of the doctor's way ever since Doyle asked
me. I'd rather not see him till I have my mind made up the one way or
the other."

It was unfortunate for Father McCormack that Dr. O'Grady should at that
moment have walked into the Major's study without even knocking at the
door. He had just received answers to his letters from four of the most
eminent Irish Members of Parliament He had asked them all to attend a
meeting at Ballymoy and make speeches about General John Regan. They
had all refused, offering the very flimsiest excuses. Dr. O'Grady was
extremely indignant.

"I don't see what on earth use there is," he blurted out, "in our
keeping Members of Parliament at all. Here we are paying these fellows
L400 a year each, and when we ask for a perfectly simple speech---- Oh,
I beg your pardon, Father McCormack, I didn't see you were here. But I
daresay you quite agree with me. Every one must."

"Father McCormack came here," said the Major, "to ask about General John
Regan."

"Who is he at all?" said the priest.

"A general," said Dr. O'Grady, "Irish extraction. Born in Ballymoy.
Rose to great eminence in Bolivia. Finally secured the liberty of the
Republic."

"Father McCormack seems to think," said the Major, "that he was some
kind of anti-clerical socialist."

"I said he might be," said Father McCormack. "I didn't say he was, for I
don't know a ha'porth about him. All I said was that if he turned out
to be that kind of a man it wouldn't suit me to be putting up statues to
him. The Bishop wouldn't like it."

"My impression is------" said Dr. O'Grady. "Mind, I don't say I'm perfectly
certain of it, but my impression is that he built a cathedral before he
died. Anyhow I never heard or read a single word against his character
as a religious man. He may have been a little----" Dr. O'Grady winked
slowly. "You know the kind of thing I mean, Father McCormack, when he
was young. Most military men are, more or less. I expect now that the
Major could tell us some queer stories about the sort of thing that goes
on----"

"No, I couldn't," said the Major.

"In garrison towns," said Dr. O'Grady persuasively, "and of course it's
worse on active service. Come now, Major, I'm not asking you to give
yourself away, but you could----"

"No, I couldn't," said the Major firmly.

"What you mean is that you wo