“Yer was out a order,” said Blunkers, at the end of the speech.

“Yez loi!” said Dennis, jumping on his feet again.  “It’s never out av order to praise Misther Stirling.”

The crowd applauded his sentiment.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE END OF THE CONFLICT.

Peter had had some rough experiences two or three times in his fall campaign, and Dennis, who had insisted on escorting him, took him to task about his “physical culture.”

“It’s thirty pounds yez are too heavy, sir,” he told Peter.  “An’ it’s too little intirely yez afther knowin’ av hittin’.”

Peter asked his advice, bought Indian clubs, dumb-bells, and boxing-gloves, and under Dennis’s tutelage began to learn the art of self-defence.  He was rather surprised, at the end of two months, to find how much flesh he had taken off, how much more easily he moved, how much more he was eating, and how much more he was able to do, both mentally and physically.

“It seems as if somebody had oiled my body and brain,” he told Dennis.

Dennis let him into another thing, by persuading him to join the militia regiment most patronized by the “sixth,” and in which Dennis was already a sergeant.  Peter received a warm welcome from the regiment, for Dennis, who was extremely popular, had heralded his fame, and Peter’s physical strength and friendly way did the rest.  Ogden Ogden laughed at him for joining a “Mick” regiment, and wanted to put Peter into the Seventh.  Peter only said that he thought his place was where he was.

Society did not see much of Peter this winter.  He called on his friends dutifully, but his long visits to Albany, his evenings with Dennis, and his drill nights, interfered badly with his acceptance of the invitations sent him.  He had, too, made many friends in his commission work and politics, so that he had relatively less time to give to his older ones.  The absence of Miss De Voe and Lispenard somewhat reduced his social obligations it is true, but the demands on his time were multiplying fast.

One of these demands was actual law work.  The first real case to come to him was from the contractor who had served on the tenement-commission.  He was also employed by the Health Board as special counsel in a number of prosecutions, to enforce clauses of his Food Bill.  The papers said it was because of his familiarity with the subject, but Peter knew it was the influence of Green, who had become a member of that Board.  Then he began to get cases from the “district,” and though there was not much money in each case, before long the number of them made a very respectable total.

The growth of his practice was well proven by a suggestion from Dummer that they should join forces.  “Mr. Bohlmann wants to give you some of his work, and it’s easier to go into partnership than to divide his practice.”

Peter knew that Dummer had a very lucrative business of a certain kind, but he declined the offer.