"But you would have had trouble with your pigs," Mrs. O'Halloran said. "The Spanish pigs are wild, fierce-looking beasts, and would never be content to share the cottages."
"Ah! But we would have had Irish pigs just the same as now. Well, what do you think--" and he broke off suddenly, sitting upright, and dropping the brogue altogether--"they were saying, at mess, that the natives declare there are lots of Spanish troops moving down in this direction; and that a number of ships are expected, with stores, at Algeciras."
"Well, what of that?" Mrs. O'Halloran asked. "We are at peace with Spain. What does it matter where they move their troops, or land stores?"
"That is just the thing. We are at peace with them, sure enough; but that is no reason why we should be always at peace. You know how they hate seeing our flag flying over the Rock; and they may think that, now we have got our hands full with France, and the American colonists, it will be the right time for them to join in the scrimmage, and see if they can't get the Rock back again."
"But they would never go to war, without any ground of complaint!"
"I don't know, Mrs. O'Halloran. When one wants to pick a quarrel with a man, it is always a mighty easy thing to do so. You can tread on his toe, and ask him what he put it there for; or sit down on his hat, and swear that he put it on the chair on purpose; or tell him that you do not like the colour of his hair, or that his nose isn't the shape that pleases you. It is the easiest thing in the world to find something to quarrel about, when you have a mind for it."
"Are you quite serious, Teddy?"
"Never more serious in my life.
"Have you heard about it, Gerald?"
"I heard them saying something about it, when we were waiting for the colonel on parade, this morning; but I did not think much of it."