ar, and with a sudden, violent action, made easier by the recumbent
attitude, deposited the younger man in a heap on the floor. Too
surprised by the unexpectedness of the attack, James made no defence,
and before he could even attempt to rise from his humiliating position
the old man stood over him, shaking his fist in his face.

"Ye damn dirty spalpeen, lie there f'r a time, will ye? I'll break ivery
bone in ye'er body if ye even make a move ter git up. Do ye think I've
spint me life f'r nothin' better than ter rear up a blackmailer an' th'
like iv ye? Do ye think me an' th' ol' woman, God rist her soul, slaved
th' flesh off our bones f'r nothin' better than ter raise a brat who'd
sell th' man whose hand was always out f'r me an' mine? It's ye'er
fa-ather talkin' ter ye now, James Riley, an' it's ye'er fa-ather who's
goin' ter scrape off some iv thim fine airs thim Tammany thieves an'
blacklegs has learned ye. It's manny th' time I've licked ye good,
Jimmie, when ye was a la-ad, an' it's agin I'll do it if I has ter, ter
learn ye honesty. Now git up an' set in that chair an' do phwat I tell
ye, if ye know phwat's best f'r ye."

James Riley rose from the floor and sat obediently in the chair his
father indicated. Had he chosen to assert his strength, the elder man
would have been but a child in opposition; but the fire which flashed
from those angry eyes, and the tone in which his father's scathing
castigation was administered, took him back twenty years when the same
angry flash and the same convincing tones were backed up by a physical
force which made them worthy of respect. James Riley was again the
offending boy, and his father--stern, severe, unrelenting in his own
ideas of right and wrong--held him in a grip he could not break.

"Set there, damn ye," the elder Riley repeated, breathing hard from
excitement and from the unusual exertion. "Now tell me phwat ye found
out when ye was workin' on ye'er own account."

James tried desperately to summon courage enough to oppose his father's
will, but to no avail.

"I've mixed a bit with Buckner--the first husband--that's all."

"An' phwat did ye find out?" Riley demanded, sternly.

James hesitated.

"Out wid it!" the old man shouted.

"He's been married again since."

"Ah, ha! th' feller phwat says me Misther Robert's wife ain't his wife,
'cause th' divorce warn't reg'lar, has been married agin, has he?"
Riley's good-humor began to return with this cheerful bit