more of Pat Carroll than he should
have done; and, though it would be wrong to suppose that he took a
part against his father, he no doubt discussed the questions which
were of interest to Pat Carroll, in a manner that would have been
very displeasing to his father. "Faix, Mr. Flory," Pat would say to
him, "'av you're one of us, you've got to be one of us; you've had a
glimmer of light, as Father Brosnan says, to see the errors of your
way; but you've got to see the errors of your way on 'arth as well
as above. Dragging the rint out o' the body and bones o' the people,
like hair from a woman's head, isn't the way, and so you'll have to
larn." Then Florian would endeavour to argue with his friend, and
struggle to make him understand that in the present complicated state
of things it was necessary that a certain amount of rent should go to
Morony Castle to keep up the expenses there.

"We couldn't do, you know, without Peter; nor yet very well without
the carriage and horses. It's all nonsense saying that there should
be no rent; where are we to get our clothes from?" But these
arguments, though very good of their kind, had no weight with Pat
Carroll, whose great doctrine it was that rent was an evil _per se_;
and that his world would certainly go on a great deal better if there
were no rent.

"Haven't you got half the land of Ballintubber in your hands?" said
Carroll. Here Florian in a whisper reminded Pat that the lands of
Ballintubber were at this moment under water, and had been put so by
his operation. "Why wouldn't he make me a statement when I asked for
it?" said Carroll, with a coarse grin, which almost frightened the
boy.

"Flory," said Edith to the boy that afternoon, "you did see the men
at work upon the sluices that afternoon?"

"I didn't," said Florian.

"We all believe that you did."

"But I didn't."

"You may as well listen to me this once. We all believe that you
did--papa and I, and Frank and Ada; Peter believes it; there's not a
servant about the place but what believes it. Everybody believes it
at Headford. Mr. Blake at Carnlough, and all the Blakes believe it."

"I don't care a bit about Mr. Blake," said the boy.

"But you do care about your own father. If you were to go up and
down to Galway by the boat, you would find that everybody on board
believes it. The country people would say that you had turned against
your father because of your religion. Mr. Morris, from beyond Cong,
was here