The conversation had now arrived at a point in which one angry word more must have produced a rupture between them; and though Atlee took in the whole situation and its consequences at a glance, there was nothing in the easy jauntiness of his manner that gave any clue to a sense of anxiety or discomfort.
‘Is it likely,’ asked he at length, ‘that his Excellency will advert to the idea of recognising or rewarding these people for their brave defence?’
‘I am coming to that, if you will spare me a little patience: Saxon slowness is a blemish you’ll have to grow accustomed to. If Lord Danesbury should know that you are an acquaintance of the Kilgobbin family, and ask you what would be a suitable mode of showing how their conduct has been appreciated in a high quarter, you should be prepared with an answer.’
Atlee’s eyes twinkled with a malicious drollery, and he had to bite his lips to repress an impertinence that seemed almost to master his prudence, and at last he said carelessly—
‘Dick Kearney might get something.’
‘I suppose you know that his qualifications will be tested. You bear that in mind, I hope—’
‘Yes. I was just turning it over in my head, and I thought the best thing to do would be to make him a Civil Service Commissioner. They are the only people taken on trust.’
‘You are severe, Mr. Atlee. Have these gentlemen earned this dislike on your part?’
‘Do you mean by having rejected me? No, that they have not. I believe I could have survived that; and if, however, they had come to the point of telling me that they were content with my acquirements, and what is called “passed me,” I fervently believe I should have been seized with an apoplexy.’
‘Mr. Atlee’s opinion of himself is not a mean one,’ said Walpole, with a cold smile.