"
"Then leave tenant-right to the people and the Cabinet. Why should
you take it up?"
Mr. Monk paused a moment or two before he replied. "If I choose to
run a-muck, there is no reason why you should follow me. I am old and
you are young. I want nothing from politics as a profession, and you
do. Moreover, you have a congenial subject where you are, and need
not disturb yourself. For myself, I tell you, in confidence, that I
cannot speak so comfortably of my own position."
"We will go and see, at any rate," said Phineas.
"Yes," said Mr. Monk, "we will go and see." And thus, in the month of
May, it was settled between them that, as soon as the session should
be over, and the incidental work of his office should allow Phineas
to pack up and be off, they two should start together for Ireland.
Phineas felt rather proud as he wrote to his father and asked
permission to bring home with him a Cabinet Minister as a visitor. At
this time the reputation of Phineas at Killaloe, as well in the minds
of the Killaloeians generally as in those of the inhabitants of the
paternal house, stood very high indeed. How could a father think that
a son had done badly when before he was thirty years of age he was
earning L2,000 a year? And how could a father not think well of a
son who had absolutely paid back certain moneys into the paternal
coffers? The moneys so repaid had not been much; but the repayment
of any such money at Killaloe had been regarded as little short of
miraculous.
Pages:
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818