General John Regan Part 23

O'Grady, "and that is delaying me. Be off with you at once."

Constable Moriarty marched off towards the barrack, fully determined to call on Mary Ellen on the way. Dr. O'Grady went into the stable yard to look for Major Kent. He found him smoking a pipe and reading the last number of the Connacht Eagle in an empty loose box.

"I thought you'd like to know," said Dr. O'Grady, "that I've finished with the piano, so you can go back into the house again."

"Quite sure you're finished?" said the Major.

"Quite."

"Because if there are any final touches to put to your oratorio, you'd better do them to-day. The piano won't be there to-morrow. I've made up my mind to sell it at once."

"Silly thing to do," said Dr. O'Grady. "You won't get half what it's worth if you sell it in a hurry like that."

"Even if I have to pay someone to take it away," said the Major, "I shall make a good bargain. It's better to lose a little money than to spend the rest of my life in a lunatic asylum."

"You know your own business best, of course, and if you think you can preserve what little intelligence you have by giving Thady Gallagher or some other fellow a present of your piano?"

"I think I can save myself from being turned into a gibbering maniac,"

said the Major, "by making sure that you'll never have the chance of composing music in my house again. Since eight o'clock this morning you've been at it. I could hear you whenever I went, mixing up hymns and waltzes and things with 'G.o.d Save the King.' I tried to get a bit of lunch at half past one, but I had to fly from the house."

"It's over now anyhow," said Dr. O'Grady. "And you needn't sell the piano. I've given up the idea of producing a new version of that tune for the Lord-Lieutenant. I find that the thing can't be done in the time. I'm going to give him 'Rule Britannia' instead."

"With variations?"

"No. Quite plain. It'll do him just as well as the other. In fact from his point of view it's rather the more patriotic tune of the two, and there won't be any local objection to it because n.o.body can possibly recognise it."

It was in this way that Dr. O'Grady showed the true greatness of his mind. A weaker man, daunted by the difficulty of arranging "G.o.d Save the King" in such a way as to suit all tastes, might have given up the attempt to provide a musical welcome for the Lord-Lieutenant. A man of narrow obstinacy, the kind of man who is really like a pig, would have persevered, in spite of Constable Moriarty's warning, in trying to teach his variations to the town band. Dr. O'Grady, knowing that the main thing was the success of his general scheme, turned from a tune which presented insuperable difficulties, and fixed upon another, which would, he hoped, be comparatively easy to manage. The Major ought to have admired him; but did not He was in a condition of extreme nervous exasperation which rendered him unfit to admire anything.

"You'll get us all into an infernal mess with your foolery," he said sulkily, "and when you do, you needn't come to me to help you out."

"I won't. But don't forget the committee meeting to-morrow morning. Half past eleven, in Doyle's Hotel."

"What committee?"

"Strictly speaking," said Dr. O'Grady, "it's two committees?the Statue Erection Committee and the Lord-Lieutenant Reception Committee?but the same people are on both, so we may as well make one meeting do."

"I'll go," said the Major, "in the hope, utterly vain of course, of keeping you from further excesses."

"Good," said Dr. O'Grady. "And now I must hurry off. I've a lot to do between this and then."

Major Kent was a kind-hearted man. He had suffered intensely during the earlier part of the day and for some hours had been seriously angry with Dr. O'Grady. But his sense of hospitality was stronger than his resentment.

"Stop for half an hour," he said, "and have something to eat Now that you've given up punis.h.i.+ng my poor old piano we might have lunch in peace."

"Can't possibly waste time in eating. I've far too much to do. To tell you the truth, Major, I don't expect to sit down to a square meal until I join the Lord-Lieutenant's luncheon party. Till then I must s.n.a.t.c.h a crust as I can while running from one thing to another."

Dr. O'Grady mounted his bicycle and hurried off. He reached the Greggs'

house at twenty minutes past three, Mary Ellen was standing on the step outside the door, smiling in a good-humoured way. Mrs. Gregg, who looked hot and puzzled, was just inside the door.

"Oh, Dr. O'Grady," she said, "I'm so glad you've come. This girl won't go away and I can't make out what she wants."

"It was Constable Moriarty bid me come," said Mary Ellen.

"It's all right," said Dr. O'Grady. "I arranged for her to be here. I'll explain everything in one moment. Is that the only frock you own, Mary Ellen?"

"It is not; but I have another along with it."

"I don't expect the other is much better," said Dr. O'Grady. "Just look at that dress, will you, Mrs. Gregg?"

Mrs. Gregg looked at Mary Ellen's clothes carefully. She did not appear to admire them much.

"There's a long tear in the skirt," she said. "It might be mended, of course, but?and she has only one b.u.t.ton on her blouse, and her boots are pretty well worn out, and she's horribly dirty all over."

"In fact," said Dr. O'Grady, "you couldn't very well present her to the Lord-Lieutenant as she is at present."

"The Lord-Lieutenant!" said Mrs. Gregg.

"Perhaps I forgot to mention," said Dr. O'Grady, "that Mary Ellen must be presented. She's the grand niece of General John Regan."

"Are you really?" said Mrs. Gregg.

"It's what the doctor has put out about me," said Mary Ellen.

"It isn't a matter of what I've put out or haven't put out," said Dr.

O'Grady. "Mr. Billing has publicly acknowledged her as the grand niece of the General. Didn't he, Mary Ellen?"

"He did," said Mary Ellen.

"And Mr. Billing is the greatest living authority on everything connected with the General. So that settles it. Under those circ.u.mstances she must, of course, be presented to the Lord-Lieutenant when he comes down to unveil the statue."

"I wonder what Mrs. Ford will say?" said Mrs. Gregg.

"We'll talk about that afterwards. What I want to get at now is this: Will you undertake to see that Mary Ellen is properly dressed for the ceremony?"

"Oh, I couldn't possibly."

Mrs. Gregg looked at Mary Ellen again as she spoke, looked at her very carefully and then smiled.

Mary Ellen was also smiling. The proper dressing of Mary Ellen was plainly a very difficult task. Mrs. Gregg's smile was at first contemptuous. Mary Ellen's, on the other hand, was purely good-natured, and therefore very attractive, Mrs. Gregg began to relent.

"Won't you come in?" she said to Dr. O'Grady.

"Certainly," he replied. "Mary Ellen, you sit down on that chair in the hall and wait till we call you."

"I don't know can I wait," said Mary Ellen.

"If Moriarty's lurking about for you," said Dr. O'Grady, "let him wait.

It'll do him good. It's a great mistake for you to make yourself too cheap. No girl ought to. Moriarty will think a great deal more of you in the end if you keep him waiting every day for half an hour or so."