“That I won't, I promise you; put that clean out of your head to begin with.”
“Well, then, there is but one other course open. Come to some compromise with the Romanist party; if you don't like to give them a stray vote—and mark me, they 'd make better terms with you than with a stranger—but if you don't like that, why, take the representation alternately with them.”
Martin rose from his chair and advanced close to where Scanlan was sitting, then, fixing his eyes steadfastly on him, said,—
“Who commissioned you to make this proposition to me?”
“No one, upon my oath. There is not a man breathing who has ever so much as hinted at what I have just said to you.”
“I'm glad of it; I'm heartily glad of it,” said Martin, calmly reseating himself. “I'm glad there is not another fellow in this county your equal in impudence! Aye, Mr. Scanlan, you heard me quite correctly. I saw many a change going on amongst us, and I foresaw many more; but that a Martin of Cro' Martin should be taught his political duty by Maurice Scanlan, and that that duty consisted in a beggarly alliance with the riff-raff of a county town,—that was, indeed, a surprise for which I was in no wise prepared.”
“Well, sir, I 'm sorry if I have given any offence,” said Scanlan, rising, and, in a voice of the most quiet intonation, making his excuses. “Your rejection of the counsel I was bold enough to suggest leaves me, at least, at liberty to offer my services where they will not be rejected so contumeliously.”
“Is this a threat, Mr. Scanlan?” said Martin, with a supercilious smile.
“No, sir, nothing of the kind. I know too well what becomes my station, and is due to yours, to forget myself so far; but as you don't set any value on the borough yourself, and as there may be others who do—”
“Stay and eat your dinner here, Scanlan,” said Martin.