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O'Ruddy," she said, throwing back her head, haughty-like, "Why do you stand dallying in a lady's bower when your followers are being beaten on the lawn outside?" I cannot give you Lady Mary's exact words, for I was so astonished at their utterance; but I give you a very good purport of them. "Is it the beating of my men?" I said. "Troth, that's what I pay them for.
He killed Cormac with a blue passado. And now I would be asking you " "Master," interrupted the highwayman with sudden resolution. "I will say no more. I have done. You may kill me an it pleases you." Now I saw that enough was enough. I burst into laughter and clapped him merrily on the shoulder. "Be cheery, O'Ruddy," I cried.
"But," said the Earl in the gentlest of voices, "you have my papers, O'Ruddy, papers entrusted to you by your dying father to give into the hands of his old comrade. Would you betray such a sacred trust? Could you wanton yourself to the base practices of mere thievery?" "'Tis not I who has betrayed any trust," I cried boldly. "I brought the papers and wished to offer them.
Of course I ran the risk that it might be taken in our absence; but I trusted the word of Lord Strepp as much as I distrusted the designs of his father and mother, and Strepp had been the captain of the expedition against us; but if I had been sure the mansion was lost to me, I would have evaded none of the pomp of my march to the Manor House in the face of such pride as these upstarts of Westports exhibited toward a representative of a really ancient family like the O'Ruddy.
But " He looked at me with troubled eyes. "It is an extraordinary situation. You have spared him, and he will not wish to be spared, I feel sure. Most remarkable case." "Well, I won't kill him," said I bluntly, having tired of this rubbish. "Damme if I will!" Lord Strepp laughed outright. "It is ridiculous," he said. "Do you return, O'Ruddy, and leave me the care of this business.
"Could you direct me, sir, to a hostelry they call the 'Pig and Turnip'?" he asked with great civility. "If you will come with me," said I, "I'll bring you to the place itself, for that's where I'm stopping." "Is it possible," he said, "that I have the honour of addressing The O'Ruddy?"
Heaven help this devil from getting his sword into your bowels." He had made the appointment with Strepp, of course, and as we walked toward the ground he looked at me very curiously out of the ends of his eyes. "You know ah, you have the honour of the acquaintance of Lady Mary Strepp, O'Ruddy?" said he suddenly and nervously. "I have," I answered, stiffening. Then I said: "And you?"
O'Ruddy," he added, "were you pleased to say to the gentlemen which I would not care to hear with my hands tied behind me?" "I told them why you took that sudden trip to Bristol," I answered softly. He fairly leaped in a sudden wild rage. "You told them?" he stuttered. "You poltroon! 'Twas a coward's work!" "Be easy," said I, to soothe him.
"Unfortunately, however, he has forbidden me to present strangers to his presence." "I have very important news. Do not be an idiot," said I. "Announce me. The O'Ruddy." "The O'Ruggy?" said he. "The O'Ruddy," said I. "The O'Rudgy?" said he. "No," said I, and I told him again. Finally he took two paces within the room and sung out in a loud voice: "The O'Rubby."
"We do," said I. "We possess more integrity and perfect sense of honour than any other country in the world, although they all say the same of themselves, and it was my own father who often said that he would trust an Irishman as far as he could see him and no more, but for a foreigner he had only the length of an eyelash." "And what do you intend with the papers now, O'Ruddy?" said he.
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