Where Arnold Jacks was in company, there could be no dullness.  Alone with his host and hostess, Otway would have found the occasion rather solemn, and have wished it over, but Arnold’s melodious voice, his sprightly discussion and anecdotage, his frequent laughter, charmed the guest into self-oblivion.

“You are no doubt a Home Ruler, Mr. Otway,” observed Arnold, soon after they were seated.

“Yes, I am,” answered Piers cheerily.  “You too, I hope?”

“Why, yes.  I would grant Home Rule of the completest description, and I would let it run its natural course for—­shall we say five years?  When the state of Ireland had become intolerable to herself and dangerous to this adjacent island, I would send over dragoons.  And,” he added quietly, crumbling his bread, “the question would not rise again.”

“Arnold,” remarked Mr. Jacks, with good humour, “you are quite incapable of understanding this question.  We shall see.  Mr. Gladstone’s Bill——­”

“Mr. Gladstone’s little Bill—­do say his little Bill.”

“Arnold, you are too absurd!” exclaimed the hostess mirthfully.

“What does your father think?” Mr. Jacks inquired of their guest.  “Has he broken silence on the subject?”

“I think not.  He never says a word about politics.”

“The little Bill hasn’t a chance,” cried Arnold.  “Your majority is melting away.  You, of course, will stand by the old man, but that is chivalry, not politics.  You don’t know what a picturesque figure you make, sir; you help me to realise Horatius Codes, and that kind of thing.”

John Jacks laughed heartily at his own expense, but his wife seemed to think the jest unmannerly.  Home Rule did not in the least commend itself to her sedate, practical mind, but she would never have committed such an error in taste as to proclaim divergence from her husband’s views.

“It is a most difficult and complicated question,” she said, addressing herself to Otway.  “The character of the people makes it so; the Irish are so sentimental.”

Upon the young man’s ear this utterance fell strangely; it gave him a little shock, and he could only murmur some commonplace of assent.  With men, Piers had plenty of moral courage, but women daunted him.

“I heard a capital idea last night,” resumed Arnold Jacks, “from a man I was dining with—­interesting fellow called Hannaford.  He suggested that Ireland should be made into a military and naval depot—­used solely for that purpose.  The details of his scheme were really very ingenious.  He didn’t propose to exterminate the natives——­”

John Jacks interrupted with hilarity, which his son affected to resent:  the look exchanged by the two making pleasant proof of how little their natural affection was disturbed by political and other differences.  At the name of Hannaford, Otway had looked keenly towards the speaker.

“Is that Lee Hannaford?” he asked.  “Oh, I know him.  In fact, I’m living in his house just now.”