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These were the words on which her eyes rested: "DEAR OLD KITTERKINS: I have got into the greatest bother of a mess that ever assailed a poor gossoon, and if you can't help me, old girleen, well, I shall be done brown, as the saying is. The whole matter concerns Paddy Wheel-about. The poor creature has been getting queerer and queerer lately, and father has been ever so much worried about him.
The Bohemians of to-day were the failures of to-morrow. And the crowd who lived at the Holbein Club lived, loved, worked and died much in the fashion of less gifted folk. If there was a Bohemia of success, however, it danced here to-night. But, girleen, the music was urging! And who could resist the sweet wild delirium of a violin's call?
There are ways and ways of loving." That, in her girlhood dream of love, she could not see. And Kenny was passionately glad that his words were a riddle. Then the horn came, clear and mellow, through the cold November air and Joan drew the hood of her cloak about her head. Kenny sighed. He clung to her hand as she started away. "Girleen," he said soberly, "the wind's cold.
Queer that, queer and contradictory! Yes, after practicing the truth, he must save them all from shipwreck with a lie. "Girleen," he said, "there is something now that I must tell you. I thought never to say it. You came into my dream that day beneath the willow in gold brocade, with afterglow behind you and an ancient boat. I am an Irishman and a painter.
"It is because of the girleen I'm fretting," he said. "Listen, you two, I feel fit to die sometimes when I think the coat is lost, and it is all on account of the girleen herself. Why, it was she put in the last patch and a bit of gold was hidden in it; yes, and she sewed it round with her own pretty hands, the darling." "We'll get back the coat some day, see if we don't," said Laurie.
"Eh! is it that way with you?" said the Squire, looking at her anxiously. "They say it's a sort of a craze now amongst women, the desire to beat us men on our own ground; it's very queer, and I don't understand it, and I am sorry if the craze has seized my girleen." "Oh! never mind, father dear; I wouldn't fret you for all the learning in Christendom."
It was a night, a lake, a boat for lovers. "Even granting that, girleen," he said, "it's not going to make somebody unhappy if we take his boat. For he won't know it. And therefore it will make us happy with the least possible unhappiness to anybody else. And, after all, it's more likely to be a fairy's boat, for it's made of quicksilver. Come, mavourneen, come!" She climbed in unconvinced.
Well, says I, I'm here, says I, an' the first man that raises a hand to me, I'll invite him to his own inquist, says I, for, bedad, I'll perforate him like a riddle, says I. Well, it wint on an' on, till one day I was stayin' at a bit of a shebeen outside the place, when a slip o' a girleen kem to me I was sittin' on a bench in the back garden, the way I'd enjoy my pipe in the fresh air, an', says she, 'Get out o' this, for there's a whole crew o' thim inside going to bate you. That was six or seven o' a fine summer's night, an' I walked into the house an' took a look at thim a thievin' heap o' blayguards as iver ye seen wid your two eyes."
"I say, Paddy, it is all right," said Laurie, going up to him and laying his hand on his shoulder. "You'll get the tin I promised either to-morrow morning or the day after. I have just sent a telegram to the girleen in England. Why, Kitty wouldn't let you suffer; no, not if it were to break her heart." A wild and yet softened look came into the man's eyes.
"It's called the 'Twisting of the Rope. Long, long ago, girleen, a harper's gallantry to a pretty maid angered her mother and she asked him to help her twist a straw rope. And he did. And twisting he had to back away and over the threshold and the mother slammed the door in his face. Faith, 'twas all to get rid of him!" It was impossible to miss the point. Joan's face went scarlet.