did Ireland!"

I suppose Gorman must have been talking to her about fairies, the
dignified, Celtic kind, and the dear dark head of Kathaleen ni Houlihan.
Gorman is capable of anything. However as my country was being admired I
thought I might as well get a little of the credit for myself.

"I am an Irishman," I said.

Mrs. Ascher looked at me with withering scorn.

"You," she said, "you--you--you are----"

She was evidently in difficulties. I helped her out as best I could.

"An Irish gentleman," I said.

"An alien," she replied, "a stranger in the land you call your own."

"That," I said, "is just what I say, put more forcibly and
picturesquely."

Then Gorman came in, without knocking at the door. I was very glad
to see him. In another minute Mrs. Ascher and I would, perhaps, have
quarrelled. Gorman saved us from that catastrophe. I do not think I ever
understood before that moment the secret of Gorman's charm. He came into
that studio, a place charged with the smell of damp clay, like a breeze
from a nice green field. He was in a thoroughly good temper. I suspect
that he hurt Mrs. Ascher's hand when he shook it.

"I've just been looking at Mrs. Ascher's statue of your soul," I said.
"Splendid muscles in the calves of its legs. You must be enormously
proud of them."

Gorman, under pretence of seeking a place in which to put his
hat, turned his back on Mrs. Ascher for a minute. As he did so he
deliberately winked at me.

Some day I mean to get Gorman in a private place, "away from
everywhere," as Mrs. Ascher would say. When I get him there I shall ask
him two questions and insist on having an answer. First I shall ask him
why he devotes himself to Mrs. Ascher. He is not in love with her. We
Irish have not many virtues, but we can boast that we seldom make love
to other men's wives. Besides, Mrs. Ascher is not the kind of woman who
allows strange men to make love to her. She is, in essentials, far
less emancipated than she thinks. It is just possible that he finds her
responsive to his fondness for the more flamboyant kinds of rhetoric.
Gorman really likes talking about Ireland as an oppressed and desolated
land. It is easy enough to move large audiences to enthusiasm by
that kind of oratory. It is not so easy, I imagine, to get single,
sympathetic listeners in private life. Mrs. Ascher apparently laps up
patriotic sentiment with loud purrs. That may be why Gorman likes her.
The next thing I mean to ask hi