ily, the Queen and me. The Queen was very
embarrassed because, of course, I had been making fun of the Kaiser, but
I did not lose my self-possession. I turned to the Emperor and said,
'Sir, the Queen and I have known each other for a few moments only, but
already we have a secret between us!'" The Kaiser was very tickled by
my retort ... very tickled ... and the Queen told me afterwards that it
was very adroit of me to get out of it like that. She said it was my
Irish wit!...

It was at this point that Mr. Quinn had interrupted. "An' what did your
friend God say?" he had demanded innocently.

Mr. Quinn sat back in his chair, when he had finished telling the story,
and roared loudly with laughter. "You ought to have seen the oul' snob
turnin' red, white an' blue with rage," he shouted at Henry. "Such a
take-down! My God, what a take-down! There he was, the oul' wind-bag,
bletherin' about his friend, the Queen of Spain, an' his friend, the
Emperor of Germany, an' there was me, just waitin' for him, just
waitin', Henry, an' the minute he shut his gob, I jumped in, an' says I
to him, 'An' what did your friend God say?' By the Holy O, that was a
good one! I never enjoyed myself so much as I did that night, an'
everybody else that was there was nearin' burstin' with tryin' not to
laugh. Do you mind Lady Galduff?"

"Yes, father!"

"You mind her rightly, don't you? Well, when you go up to Dublin, you're
to call on her, do you hear? Never mind about her manners. Ask her to
tell you about me an' Dr. Beattie ... the way I asked him about his
friend God. Oh, Holy O!..."

He could proceed no further, for his sides were shaking with laughter
and the tears were streaming down his cheeks and his cheeks were the
colour of beetroot.

"You'll hurt yourself, father," said Henry, "if you laugh like that!"

4

"Of course," said Mr. Quinn, after a while, "the man's a great scholar,
an' I mebbe did wrong to take him down like that. But I couldn't help
it, Henry. You see, he's always makin' little of Irish things, an' I
have no use for a man like that. Not but what some people think too much
of Ireland an' too little of other places. Many's a time I get ragin'
mad when I hear some of the Nationalists bleatin' about Ireland as if a
bit of bog in the Atlantic were worth the rest of the world put
together. Do you know what, I'm goin' to say somethin' that'll surprise
you. I don't believe Irishmen'll think properly about Ireland 'til th