"You wronged Parnell!"
"Sit down and tell me about it," said I.
And we went to dine at the nearest restaurant where the dear fellow explained that an article of mine, sent from London and published in the Boston Herald during the previous February, had "scandalised all Irishmen" and "imperilled the chances of Home Rule."
"Dear, dear," said I, "that's a lot for one man to do! How did it happen?"
"Your article said that an action for divorce had been entered by a Captain O'Shea who named Parnell as corespondent."
"Well, what of it? Everybody knows it."
"I don't know it. We don't know it here. Nobody knows it."
"And you 're an editor, Jeffrey! Is that the way you keep the run of the news?"
"Such a case has never been tried."
"It has not yet been tried, you mean. Of course not; it has to take its turn. It will come on in the autumn."