here's its present address,' added he, as he
threw it on the fire and pressed it down with his foot.

'Why not have given it to me now?' asked the other.

'Because three minutes will tell you all that was in it, and better than
writing; for I can reply to anything that wants an explanation, and that's
what a letter cannot. First of all, do you know that Mr. Claude Barry, your
county member, has asked for the Chiltern, and is going to resign?'

'No, I have not heard it.'

'Well, it's a fact. They are going to make him a second secretary
somewhere, and pension him off. He has done his work: he voted an Arms Bill
and an Insurrection Act, and he had the influenza when the amnesty petition
was presented, and sure no more could be expected from any man.'

'The question scarcely concerns me; our interest in the county is so small
now, we count for very little.'

'And don't you know how to make your influence greater?'

'I cannot say that I do.'

'Go to the poll yourself, Richard Kearney, and be the member.'

'You are talking of an impossibility, Mr. Donogan. First of all, we have no
fortune, no large estates in the county, with a wide tenantry and plenty of
votes; secondly, we have no place amongst the county families, as our old
name and good blood might have given us; thirdly, we are of the wrong
religion, and, I take it, with as wrong politics; and lastly, we should not
know what to do with the prize if we had won it.'

'Wrong in every one of your propositions--wholly wrong,' cried the other.
'The party that will send you in won't want to be bribed, and they'll be
proud of a man who doesn't overtop them with his money. You don't need the
big families, for you'll beat them. Your religion is the right one, for it
will give you the Priests; and your politics shall be Repeal, and it
will give you the Peasants; and as to not knowing what to do when you're
elected, are you so mighty well off in life that you've nothing to wish
for?'

'I can scarcely say that,' said Dick, smiling.

'Give me a few minutes' attention,' said Donogan, 'and I think I'll show
you that I've thought this matter out and out; indeed, before I sat down to
write to you, I went into all the details.'

And now, with a clearness and a fairness that astonished Kearney, this
strange-looking fellow proceeded to prove how he had weighed the whole
difficulty, and saw how, in the nice balance of the two great parties who
would contest the seat, the Repea