him to be rushing onward like a torrent night and day,
from the dance to the ward-meeting, from business to church, interested
and yet careless. The Senator informed him with pride that his debut
would take place at the banquet on St. Patrick's Day, when he should
make a speech.

"Do you think you can do it, me boy?" said the Senator. "If you think
you can, why you can."

"I know I can," said the reckless Dillon, who had never made a speech in
his life.

"An' lemme give you a subject," said Judy. They were all together in the
sitting-room, where the Senator had surprised them in a game of cards.

"Give a bastin' to Mare Livingstone," said Judy seriously. "I read in
the _Sun_ how he won't inspect the parade on St. Patrick's Day, nor let
the green flag fly on the city hall. There must be an Orange dhrop in
his blood, for no dacint Yankee 'ud have anny hathred for the blessed
green. Sure two years ago Mare Jones dressed himself up in a lovely
green uniform, like an Irish prince, an' lukked at the parade from a
platform. It brought the tears to me eyes, he lukked so lovely. They
ought to have kep' him Mare for the rest of his life. An' for Mare
Livingstone, may never a blade o' grass or a green leaf grow on his
grave."

The Senator beamed with secret pleasure, while the others began to talk
together with a bitterness beyond Arthur's comprehension.

"He ought to have kept his feelings to himself," said quiet Anne. "If he
didn't like the green, there was no need of insultin' us."

"And that wasn't the worst," Louis hotly added. "He gave a talk to the
papers the next day, and told how many Irish paupers were in the
poorhouse, and said how there must be an end to favoring the Irish."

"I saw that too," said Judy, "an' I sez to meself, sez I, he's wan o'
the snakes St. Pathrick dhruv out of Ireland."

"No need for surprise," Mona remarked, studying her cards, "for the man
has only one thought: to keep the Irish in the gutter. Do you suppose I
would have been a teacher to-day if he could have kept me out of it,
with all his pretended friendship for papa."

"If you baste the Mayor like this now, there won't be much left for me
to do at the banquet," said Arthur with a laugh for their fierceness.

"Ay, there it is," said Judy. "Yez young Americans have no love for the
green, except for the fun yez get out of it; barrin' dacint Louis here,
who read the history of Ireland whin he was tin years old, an' niver got
over it.