‘Yes, he came on the track of some Fenian leader—a droll thought enough anywhere out of Ireland, to search for a rebel under a magistrate’s roof; not but there was something still more Irish in the incident.’
‘How was that?’ asked O’Shea eagerly.
‘I chanced to be out walking with the ladies when the escort came, and as they failed to find the man they were after, they proceeded to make diligent search for his papers and letters. That taste for practical joking, that seems an instinct in this country, suggested to Mr. Kearney to direct the fellows to my room, and what do you think they have done? Carried off bodily all my baggage, and left me with nothing but the clothes I’m wearing!’
‘What a lark!’ cried O’Shea, laughing.
‘Yes, I take it that is the national way to look at these things; but that passion for absurdity and for ludicrous situations has not the same hold on us English.’
‘I know that. You are too well off to be droll.’
‘Not exactly that; but when we want to laugh we go to the Adelphi.’
‘Heaven help you if you have to pay people to make fun for you!’
Before Walpole could make rejoinder, the door opened to admit the ladies, closely followed by Mr. Kearney and Dick.
‘Not mine the fault if I disgrace your dinner-table by such a costume as this,’ cried Walpole.