very hard to be a Christian."

I was not going to discuss that point with Ascher. It was bad enough
to have an artistic soul awakened in me by Mrs. Ascher. I could not
possibly allow her husband to lead me to the discovery that I had
the other kind of soul. Nor was it any business of mine to work out
harmonies between Christian ethics and the principles of modern banking.
I detest puzzles of all kinds. It is far better, at all events far
more comfortable, to take life as one finds it, a straightforward,
commonplace affair. I have the greatest respect for Christianity of a
moderate, sensible kind and I subscribe to the funds of the Church
of Ireland. But when it comes to practical matters I find myself in
agreement with Wordsworth's "Rob Roy,"

The good old rule
Sufficeth me, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power
And they should keep who can.

So long, of course, as one does not do anything shady. I do not like
lying or theft.

Ascher sat looking at me as if he expected me to tell him exactly how
hard it is to be a Christian. I made a determined effort to get back
again to cash registers.

"Tim Gorman's invention will get its chance then?"

"Yes. If we can manage it the thing will get its chance. It will be made
and, I think, people will use it."

"Mrs. Ascher will be very pleased to hear that."

"Ah," said Ascher. "Is she interested? But I remember now. Young Gorman
has been sitting to her. She would naturally be interested in him."

"Her idea," I said, "is that Tim Gorman is producing a baby, with all
the usual accompaniments of that difficult business, labour, you know,
and pain. She regards you as the doctor in attendance, and she thinks it
would be exceedingly wrong of you to choke the little thing."

Ascher looked at me quite gravely. For a moment I was afraid that he
was going to say something about the paradoxical brilliance of the Irish
mind. I made haste to stop him.

"That's Mrs. Ascher's metaphor," I said, "not mine. I should never have
thought of it. I don't know enough about the artistic soul to appreciate
the feelings of people who give birth to cash registers. But the idea
is plain enough. Tim Gorman will be bitterly disappointed if he does
not see girls in cheap restaurants putting actual shillings into those
machines of his."

"From my wife's point of view," said Ascher, "and from mine, too, that
ought to be an important consideration. It's th