‘Fun and good-fellowship to-night, Con,’ said Philip, as the captain sadly reported no star visible.

‘Have I ever flown a signal to the contrary?’ retorted the captain.

’No politics, and I ‘ll thank you,’ said Philip:  ’none of your early recollections.  Be jovial.’

’You should have seen me here the other night about a month ago; I smuggled up an old countrywoman of ours, with the connivance of rosy Mary,’ said Captain Con, suffused in the merriest of grins.  ’She sells apples at a stall at a corner of a street hard by, and I saw her sitting pulling at her old pipe in the cold October fog morning and evening for comfort, and was overwhelmed with compassion and fraternal sentiment; and so I invited her to be at the door of the house at half-past ten, just to have a roll with her in Irish mud, and mend her torn soul with a stitch or two of rejoicing.  She told me stories; and one was pretty good, of a relative of hers, or somebody’s—­I should say, a century old, but she told it with a becoming air of appropriation that made it family history, for she’s come down in the world, and this fellow had a stain of red upon him, and wanted cleaning; and, “What!” says the good father, “Mika! you did it in cold blood?” And says Mika, “Not I, your Riverence.  I got myself into a passion ’fore I let loose.”  I believe she smoked this identical pipe.  She acknowledged the merits of my whisky, as poets do hearing fine verses, never clapping hands, but with the expressiveness of grave absorption.  That’s the way to make good things a part of you.  She was a treat.  I got her out and off at midnight, rosy Mary sneaking her down, and the old girl quiet as a mouse for the fun’s sake.  The whole intrigue was exquisitely managed.’

‘You run great risks,’ Philip observed.

‘I do,’ said the captain.

He called on the brothers to admire the ‘martial and fumial’ decorations of his round tower, buzzing over the display of implements, while Patrick examined guns and Philip unsheathed swords.  An ancient clay pipe from the bed of the Thames and one from the bed of the Boyne were laid side by side, and strange to relate, the Irish pipe and English immediately, by the mere fact of their being proximate, entered into rivalry; they all but leapt upon one another.  The captain judicially decided the case against the English pipe, as a newer pipe of grosser manufacture, not so curious by any means.

‘This,’ Philip held up the reputed Irish pipe, and scanned as he twirled it on his thumb, ’This was dropped in Boyne Water by one of William’s troopers.  It is an Orange pipe.  I take it to be of English make.’

’If I thought that, I’d stamp my heel on the humbug the neighbour minute,’ said Captain Con.  ‘Where’s the sign of English marks?’

‘The pipes resemble one another,’ said Philip, ’like tails of Shannon-bred retrievers.’

’Maybe they ‘re both Irish, then?’ the captain caught at analogy to rescue his favourite from reproach.