Lawrence had a good laugh—not the least at Paddy’s mystified air as to whether she had bought the pigs or not—and then he nobly offered to solve the difficulty by taking them off her hands.
“You can take them to the Mourne Lodge farm,” he told the no less bewildered Patrick, “and call for the money in the morning.”
Paddy was instantly all smiles. “And don’t forget my commission, Pat!” she cried.
“Your commission was for selling,” was Jack’s parting shot. “You bought these, so you can’t claim it.”
“Let’s all go and have coffee at the café,” suggested Lawrence. And ten minutes later Paddy and Jack were again chuckling uproariously over the relation of the whole episode from first to last.
And it was then that Paddy, under the spell of a certain sense of gratitude, decided Lawrence was very nice when he liked, and, of course, if Eileen was growing to care for him, and thought she would be happy with him, it was no use worrying about things. It was, of course, too much to expect that Lawrence could do other than love Eileen if she would let him.
CHAPTER IX
Concerning a Supper-Dance.
As the date fixed for the great dance drew near, no other topic of conversation was of any real interest. Even the two little ladies at the Parsonage got quite excited over it, and confided to Paddy and Eileen one afternoon, that they were each having new dresses on purpose.
“Oh! how splendid!” Paddy cried ecstatically; “do tell us what they are like.”