't gentlemen an' can't control themselves ... don't
know when to stop an' when to go on ... an' so I don't do them. An'
that's a gentleman's job, John Marsh, an' when gentlemen stop that, then
begod it's good-bye to a decent community. That's why England's goin' to
blazes ... because her gentlemen have forgotten the first job of the
gentleman: to keep himself in strict control, to be reticent, to conceal
his feelings!"

But John Marsh would not agree with him. "England is going to blazes,"
he said, "because England has lost her religion. If England were
Catholic, England would be noble again!..."

"Just like France and Spain and Italy," Mr. Quinn replied. "Bosh, John
Marsh, bosh! I tell you, the test of a nation is this question of
gentlemen!..."

"The test of a nation is its belief in God ... its church," said John
Marsh.

"Well, Ireland believes in God, doesn't it? The Catholic Church is
fairly strong here, isn't it? An' what sort of a Church is it? A
gentleman's church or a peasant's church? Look at the priests, John
Marsh, look at them! My God, _what_ bounders! Little greedy, grubbin'
blighters, livin' for their Easter offerin's, an' doin' damn little for
their money. What do you think takes them into the church? Love of God?
Love of man? No, bedam if it is. Conceit an' snobbery an' the desire for
a soft job takes about nine out of ten of them.... Well, well, I'm
runnin' away from myself. What I want to say is this: the Catholic
church'll never be worth a damn in Ireland or anywhere else, 'til its
priests are gentlemen. No church is worth a damn unless its priests are
gentlemen!"

"But what do you mean by gentlemen, Mr. Quinn?"

"I mean men who are keepin' a tight hold on themselves. Mortifyin' their
flesh ... all that sort of stuff ... so that they won't give the mob an
excuse for breakin' loose!"

Marsh wondered why Mr. Quinn was talking in this strain and tried to
draw him back to the subject of Henry's love of Sheila.

"I'm comin' to that," said Mr. Quinn, pointing his cigar at him.
"Listen, John, there were two men that might have done big things in
Irelan' and Englan'--Parnell an' Lord Randolph Churchill, an' they
didn't because they weren't gentlemen. They couldn't control themselves.
There isn't a house in Ulster that hasn't got the photographs of those
two men in some album...."

"Parnell?" Marsh exclaimed.

"Aye, Parnell. Him an' Randy Churchill side by side in the one album!
Lord bless me, J