‘There’s our last lurch, glory to the breakwater!’ exclaimed Father Boyle, as the boat pitched finally outside the harbour fence, where a soft calm swell received them with the greeting of civilised sea-nymphs.  ’The captain’ll have a quieter passage across.  You may spy him on the pier.  We’ll be meeting him on the landing.’

‘If he’s not in bed, from watching the stars all night,’ said Miss Kathleen.

‘He must have had a fifty-lynx power of sight for that, my dear.’

‘They did appear, though, and wonderfully bright,’ she said.  ’I saw them come out and go in.  It’s not all cloud when the high wind blows.’

‘You talk like a song, Kathleen.’

‘Couldn’t I rattle a throat if I were at home, Father!’

‘Ah! we’re in the enemy’s country now.’

Miss Kathleen said she would go below to get the handbags from the stewardess.

Mr. Colesworth’s brows had a little darkened over the Rev. Gentleman’s last remark.  He took two or three impatient steps up and down with his head bent.  ‘Pardon me; I hoped we had come to a better understanding,’ he said.  ’Is it quite fair to the country and to Miss O’Donnell to impress on her before she knows us that England is the enemy?’

’Habit, Mr. Colesworth, habit! we’ve got accustomed to the perspective and speak accordingly.  There’s a breach visible.’

’I thought you agreed with me that good efforts are being made on our side to mend the breach.’

’Sir, you have a noble minority at work, no doubt; and I take you for one of the noblest, as not objecting to stand next to alone.’

’I really thought, judging from our conversation at Mrs. O’Donnell’s that evening, that you were going to hold out a hand and lead your flock to the right sort of fellowship with us.’

’To submission to the laws, Mr. Colesworth; ’tis my duty to do it as pastor and citizen.’

‘No, to more than that, sir.  You spoke with friendly warmth.’

’The atmosphere was genial, if you remember the whisky and the fumes of our tobacco at one o’clock!’

’I shall recollect the evening with the utmost pleasure.  You were kind enough to instruct me in a good many things I shall be sure to profit by.  I wish I could have spent more time in Ireland.  As it is, I like Irishmen so well that if the whole land were in revolt I should never call it the enemy’s country.’

‘Excellently spoken, Mr. Colesworth,’ said the priest.  ’We ’ll hope your writings may do service to mend the breach.  For there is one, as you know, and more ’s the pity; there’s one, and it’s wide and deep.  As my friend Captain Con O’Donnell says, it’s plain to the naked eye as a pair of particularly fat laundry drawers hung out to dry and ballooned in extension—­if mayhap you’ve ever seen the sight of them in that state:—­just held together by a narrow neck of thread or button, and stretching away like a corpulent frog in the act of swimming on the wind.  His comparison touches the sentiment of disunion, sir.’