“What’s that?” said the Major. “What General are you talking about?”
“General John Regan,” said Dr. O’Grady.
“Who? What?” said the Major.
“Don’t give yourself away now, Major,” said Dr. O’Grady, in a whisper. “Don’t let Mr. Billing find out that you’ve never heard of the General. You ought to have heard of him. The Major,” he said aloud, “isn’t as well up in the General’s history as he might be. He hasn’t studied the details of his campaigns; but he quite agrees with the rest of us that there ought to be a statue to his memory.”
“Dr. O’Grady has just informed me,” said Mr. Billing, “that the centre of this square is the site that has been selected by your Urban District Council.”
“The very spot we’re standing on at the present moment,” said Dr. O’Grady. “The Major has promised £5, which shows how keen he is on the project. Don’t say you haven’t, Major. We all know that you’re a modest man, doing good by stealth and blushing to find it known. But a public subscription can’t be kept secret. Sooner or later the list of subscribers will have to be published. Doyle,” he looked round as he spoke and saw Doyle and Gallagher standing near him. “Doyle has promised another £5. He ought to be giving more, and I daresay he will in the end. He’s a much richer man than the Major, though he doesn’t look it. Gallagher is good for another pound. It doesn’t sound much from a newspaper editor, but it’s as much as he can afford. Half the advertisements in his paper aren’t paid for at all. Father McCormack—he’s the parish priest, and we haven’t asked him yet, but he’ll put down his name for £10 at least. He always supports every kind of good work liberally.”
“Gentlemen,” said Mr. Billing, “you may put me down for five hundred dollars.”
Doyle and Gallagher drew pieces of paper and pencils from their pockets. They did sums rapidly, Doyle on the back of an old envelope, Gallagher on a sheet of paper already covered with shorthand notes. Dr. O’Grady worked his sum in his head. He arrived at his answer first.
“A hundred pounds!” he said. “A generous subscription!”
“It’s more than a hundred,” said Doyle. “What do you make it, Thady?”