'No!' pursued the young man, mournfully. 'For my sake, you will abandon this quarrel. I must leave this house, and to whose should I fly if not to yours? I must go away, for this can be borne no longer. There is a limit to human patience, and mine is a small allowance.'
'Do nothing rashly,' Curran urged.
'I tell you I cannot bear it,' the young man retorted with vehemence. 'Who knows to what I might be tempted if Shane should go too far? I tell you I dare not trust myself. And my mother has no sympathy for me, as you saw; for she was superbly indifferent when he threw that insult in my teeth. What cares she if I am insulted or not? Such words from another man, and I would have sprung at his throat at once. When we fear temptation, it is best to run away from it.'
Curran reflected for a moment, and then grunted:
'Boy! Coriolanus replied to his pleading parent, "Mother, you have conquered." To oblige you, I will not shoot Lord Clare.'
'I thank you for making an old woman of me!' Terence replied, with a tinge of humour. 'My conduct was somewhat like a woman's, I confess, for sure no man should bear so great an insult, even from a brother!'
'You know best,' the little man said, patting his companion's shoulder fondly. 'But it seems sad thus to shake off the dust of your ancestral home. Maybe, if he sees you won't be put upon, my lord may grow more civil. Shane no doubt is trying, and you are a warm-complexioned young gentleman. Having no son, I would gladly take you to fill the vacant place, as no one knows better than yourself. You shall stay with me for a few months, and I'll speak to her ladyship about my lord, who must be taught to cultivate a civil tongue and apologise; for there must be no open rupture between you. We'll say it's for convenience' sake, as I want to make a great lawyer of you. There are briefs you must study for me, and they pour in, you know. How'll I get through the papers at all at all, unless I have my junior near me?'
And thus the matter was settled between them, while the elder wondered what Mrs. Gillin would think of the arrangement. She must be hoodwinked without delay to prevent mischief, or she would come clamouring up to the Abbey in her quality-clothes, and all the fat would be in the fire at once.
Hearing a light footstep on the gravel, Terence turned, and a pang shot through his heart as he beheld his cousin. It was dreadful to leave her behind, in the maw as it were of Shane. Yet what difference could his absence make to one who treated him so scurvily? And those smart garments, too--that aggravatingly bewitching bonnet--for whose behoof were they intended? Not for his, certainly. All things considered, it was best that he should go.
Meanwhile my lady calmly discussed a late breakfast in the oak parlour with Lord Clare, unconscious that the behaviour of her sons had been more indecorous than usual, while the originator of the quarrel trifled languidly with an egg, speculating about time and place, whether the duel between Curran and the chancellor was to be with sword or pistol. Why not directly after breakfast in the rosary? a capital spot, sheltered from wind and observation. Terence would of course be Curran's second; Cassidy here, who had been hanging about in a deprecatory manner, first on one leg, then on the other, would be the chancellor's; while he, my lord, would see fair play. An excellent arrangement. Then the combatants might amicably return together to Dublin in the golden coach to set about the business of the day.