“Say, gentlemen,” he said, “that doctor of yours seems to have got a move on this locality. The announcement of the meeting is a good thing, sure.”
“The doctor,” said Doyle, “is a fine man; but it would be better for him if he’d pay what he owes. I’m tired, so I am, of trying to get my money out of him.”
“The doctor,” said Gallagher, “has the good of the locality at heart, and whatever it might be that he takes in hand will be carried through. You may rely on the doctor.”
Thady Gallagher had not yet been paid for printing the green posters. But he had every hope he would be when Mr. Billing handed over his subscription to the statue fund. He felt, it right to do all in his power to encourage Mr. Billing. Doyle, on the other hand, was becoming despondent. He did not like to see money which ought to be his frittered away on posters and the other necessary expenses of a public meeting. He was much less inclined to admire, the doctor’s enterprise.
“I guess,” said Mr. Billing, “that these Congressmen will draw some.”
“If you mean the Members of Parliament,” said Doyle, “the doctor told me this morning that they said they’d more to do than to be attending his meetings.”
“It could be,” said Gallagher hopefully, “that one of them might.”
“They will not,” said Doyle.
“We’ll do without them,” said Mr. Billing.
“That’s what the doctor said to me,” said Gallagher. “‘We’ll do without them, Thady,’ said he, ‘so long as we have Mr. Billing and Father McCormack and yourself,’ meaning me, ‘we’ll have a good meeting if there never was a Member of Parliament near it.’ And that’s true too.”