human
What do you mean by that?
gpt
The whole country is in arms.
human
In arms?
gpt
Well, yes! I call it so. I call men in arms, when they are prepared to carry out any illegal purpose by violence, and these men have done that all through the County Galway.
human
What have they done?
gpt
You know where the meet was; well, they drew Ballytowngal, and found no fox there. It was not expected, and nothing happened there. The people did not come into old Nick Bodkin's demesne, but we had heard by the time that we were there that we should come across a lot of Landleaguers at Moytubber. There they were as thick as bees round the covert, and there was one man who had the impudence to tell Tom Daly that draw where he might, he would draw in vain for a fox to-day in County Galway.
human
Do you mean that there was a crowd?
gpt
A crowd! Yes, all Claregalway seemed to have turned out. Claregalway is not much of a place, but everyone was there from Oranmore and from Athenry, and half the town from Galway city. This certainly was an exaggeration on the part of Frank, but was excused by his desire to impress his father with the real truth in the matter.
human
I never saw half such a number of people by a covert side. But the truth was soon known. They had beat Moytubber, and kicked up such a row as the foxes in that gorse had never heard before. And they were not slow in obtaining their object.
gpt
Their object was clear enough.
human
They didn't intend that the hounds should hunt that day either at Moytubber or elsewhere. Daly did not put his hounds into the covert at all; but rode away as fast as his horse's legs could carry him to Kilcornan.
gpt
That must be ten miles at least,
human
Twenty, I should think. But we rode away at a hand-gallop, leaving the crowd behind us. This again was an exaggeration.
gpt
But when we got to the covert at Kilcornan there was just the same sort of crowd, and just the same work had been on foot. The men there all told us that we need not expect to find a fox. A rumour had got about the field by this time that Tom Daly had a loaded pistol in his pocket. What he meant to do with it I don't know. He could have done no good without a regular massacre.
human
Did he show his pistol?
gpt
I didn't see it; but I do believe it was there. Some of the old fogies were awfully solemn about it.
human
What was the end of it all?
gpt
You know Mr. Lambert's place on the road towards Gort. It's a long way off, and I'm a little out of my latitude there. But I went as far as that, and found a bigger crowd than ever. They said that all Gort was there; but Tom having drawn the covert, went on, and swore that he wouldn't leave a place in all County Galway untried. He borrowed fresh horses, and went on with Barney Smith as grim as death. He is still drawing his covert somewhere.
human
He will tell me at last, Edith had said to her father. But her father had said, that unless the truth were now told, he must allow the affair to go by.
gpt
The time for dealing with the matter will be gone, he had said.
human
Pat Carroll is going about the country as bold as brass, and says that he will fix his own rent; whereas I know, and all the tenants know, that he ought to be in Galway jail. There isn't a man on the estate who isn't certain that it was he, with five or six others, who let the waters in upon the meadows.
gpt
Then why on earth cannot you make them tell?
human
They say that they only think it,
gpt
The very best of them only think it,
human
And there is not one of them, said Mr. Jones,
gpt
It is not revenge but justice,
human
It would be revenge to their minds. And if it came to pass that there was a man who would thus sacrifice himself to me, what must I do with him afterwards? Were I to send him to America with money, and take his land into my own hand, see what horrible things would be said of me. The sort of witness I want to back up others, who would then be made to come, is Florian.
gpt
What would they do to him?
human
I could send him to an English school for a couple of years, till all this should have passed by. I have thought of that.
gpt
That, too, would cost money,
human
Of course it would cost money, but it would be forthcoming, rather than that the boy should be in danger. But the feeling, to me, as to the boy himself, comes uppermost. It is that he himself should have such a secret in his bosom, and keep it there, locked fast, in opposition to his own father. I want to get it out of him while he is yet a boy, so that his name shall not go abroad as one who, by such manifest falsehood, took part against his own father. It is the injury done to him, rather than the injury done to me.
gpt
He has promised his priest that he will not tell,
human
He has not promised his priest, said Mr. Jones.
gpt
He has made no promise to Father Malachi, of Ballintubber. If he has promised at all it is to that pestilent fellow at Headford. The curate at Headford is not his priest, and why should a promise made to any priest be more sacred than one made to another, unless it were made in confession? I cannot understand Florian. It seems as though he were anxious to take part with these wretches against his country, against his religion, and against his father. It is unintelligible to me that a boy of his age should, at the same time, be so precocious and so stupid. I have told him that I know him to be a liar, and that until he will tell the truth he shall not come into my presence.
human
Ada, said Edith that night as they sat together,
gpt
Florian must be made to confess.
human
How make him?
gpt
You and I must do it.
human
That's all very well, said Ada,
gpt
Do you know, there is something in it all that makes me love him the better?
human
Is there? There is something in it that almost makes me hate him.
gpt
Don't hate him, Ada--if you can help it. He has got some religious idea into his head. It is all stupid.
human
It is beastly,
gpt
You may call it as you please, said the other,
human
That is such bosh,
gpt
It is so, to your thinking, but not to his. In loving him or hating him you've got to love him or hate him as a boy. Of course it's wicked that a boy should lie,--or a man, or a woman, or a girl; but they do. I don't see why we are to turn against a boy of our own, when we know that other boys lie. He has got a notion into his head that he is doing quite right, because the priest has told him.
human
He is doing quite wrong,
gpt
And now what are we to do about his breakfast? Papa says that he is not to be allowed to come into the room, and papa means it. You and I will have to breakfast with him and dine with him, first one and then the other.
human
But papa will miss us.
gpt
We must go through the ceremony of a second breakfast and a second dinner. This was the beginning of Edith's scheme.
human
Of course it's a bore; all things are bores. This about the flood is the most terrible bore I ever knew. But I'm not going to let Flory go to the devil without making an effort to save him. It would be going to the devil, if he were left alone in his present position.
gpt
Papa will see that we don't eat anything.
human
Of course he must be told. There never ought to be any secrets in anything. Of course he'll grow used to it, and won't expect us to sit there always and eat nothing. He thinks he's right, and perhaps he is. Flory will feel the weight of his displeasure; and if we talk to him we may persuade him.
gpt
The floods had done him a great injury, he said laughingly among his companions,