“It’s what Mr. O’Loughlin there was just after telling me, your ladyship, and he’s the Chairman of the Board of Guardians, that the doctor did ask for leave to go on a holiday. But I wouldn’t say that he’d be away for very long.”
“When did he ask for a holiday?” said Miss Blow to Jimmy O’Loughlin.
“It was Patsy Devlin told me,” said Jimmy; “and six weeks was the time that he mentioned.”
Miss Blow turned again to Patsy Devlin; but he had vanished. Having committed Jimmy O’Loughlin, as Chairman of the Board of Guardians, to the fact of the doctor’s holiday, he slipped quietly into the bar.
“I don’t believe,” said Miss Blow, “that you’re telling me the truth.”
“He was not,” said Jimmy, sacrificing his friend with the utmost promptitude. “It’s seldom he does that same. Devil the bigger liar, begging your ladyship’s pardon for the word, devil the bigger liar there is in Connacht than that same Patsy Devlin, and it’s what every one that knows him would tell you.”
“I don’t,” said Miss Blow severely, “see very much to choose between you and him.”
In England people have a great regard for the truth so long as it does not interfere with business. Miss Blow expressed her scorn for the two men who had tried to deceive her quite plainly both by her words and the tone in which she spoke them. In Connacht truth is less respected. Good manners and consideration for other people’s feelings are looked upon as virtues superior to blunt accuracy of statement. Jimmy O’Loughlin lied feebly, but he lied with the best intentions. He wanted to spare Miss Blow the knowledge that her lover had deserted her. In return she insulted him; but even under the sting of her words he recollected that courtesy is due to every lady, especially to one as good-looking as Miss Blow. It was not until she had turned her back on him and left the hotel that he murmured under his breath—
“May the Lord help the poor doctor if it ever comes to his being married by the like of her!”