‘I cannot affect to be very sensitive as to these Celtic criticisms, and I shall not ask you to recall them.’
‘They say that Danesbury got kicked out, all for your blunders!’
‘Do they?’ said Walpole innocently.
‘Yes; and they declare that if old Daney wasn’t the most loyal fellow breathing, he’d have thrown you over, and owned that the whole mess was of your own brewing, and that he had nothing to do with it.’
‘Do they, indeed, say that?’
‘That’s not half of it, for they have a story about a woman—some woman you met down at Kilgobbin—who made you sing rebel songs and take a Fenian pledge, and give your word of honour that Donogan should be let escape.’
‘Is that all?’
‘Isn’t it enough? A man must be a glutton for tomfoolery if he could not be satisfied with that.’
‘Perhaps you never heard that the chief of the Cabinet took a very different view of my Irish policy.’
‘Irish policy?’ cried the other, with lifted eyebrows.