‘Wouldn’t the secret of his happiness interfere?’

’If he has the secret inside his common sense.  The bulk of it I suspect to be, that he enjoys his luxuries and is ashamed of his laziness; and so the secret pulls both ways.  One day a fit of pride may have him, or one of his warm impulses, and if he’s taken in the tide of it, I shall grieve for the secret.’

‘You like his wife, Philip?’

’I respect her.  They came together,—­I suppose, because they were near together, like the two islands, in spite of the rolling waves between.  I would not willingly see the union disturbed.  He warms her, and she houses him.  And he has to control the hot blood that does the warming, and she to moderate the severity of her principles, which are an essential part of the housing.  Oh! shiver politics, Patrice.  I wish I had been bred in France:  a couple of years with your Pere Clement, and I could have met Irishmen and felt to them as an Irishman, whether they were disaffected or not.  I wish I did.  When I landed the other day, I thought myself passably cured, and could have said that rhetoric is the fire-water of our country, and claptrap the springboard to send us diving into it.  I like my comrades-in-arms, I like the character of British officers, and the men too—­I get on well with them.  I declare to you, Patrice, I burn to live in brotherhood with them, not a rift of division at heart!  I never show them that there is one.  But our early training has us; it comes on us again; three or four days with Con have stirred me; I don’t let him see it, but they always do:  these tales of starvations and shootings, all the old work just as when I left, act on me like a smell of powder.  I was dipped in “Ireland for the Irish”; and a contented Irishman scarcely seems my countryman.’

’I suppose it ‘s like what I hear of as digesting with difficulty,’ Patrick referred to the state described by his brother.

‘And not the most agreeable of food,’ Philip added.

’It would be the secret of our happiness to discover how to make the best of it, if we had to pay penance for the discovery by living in an Esquimaux shanty,’ said Patrick.

‘With a frozen fish of admirable principles for wife,’ said Philip.

‘Ah, you give me shudders!’

’And it’s her guest who talks of her in that style! and I hope to be thought a gentleman!’ Philip pulled himself up.  ’We may be all in the wrong.  The way to begin to think so, is to do them an injury and forget it.  The sensation’s not unpleasant when it’s other than a question of good taste.  But politics to bed, Patrice.  My chief is right—­soldiers have nothing to do with them.  What are you fiddling at in your coat there?’

‘Something for you, my dear Philip.’  Patrick brought out the miniature.  He held it for his brother to look.  ’It was the only thing I could get.  Mr. Adister sends it.  The young lady, Miss Caroline, seconded me.  They think more of the big portrait:  I don’t.  And it ’s to be kept carefully, in case of the other one getting damaged.  That’s only fair.’