General John Regan Part 17

"I wish to goodness," said the Major, "that Billing?if that's the man's name?had stayed in America attending to his own business, whatever it is, instead of coming here and starting all this fuss. There'll be trouble before you've done, O'Grady, more trouble than you care for. I wish to G.o.d it was all well over."

Nothing is more gratifying to the prophet of evil than the fulfilment of his own prediction. When the fulfilment follows hard on the prophecy, when not more than half an hour separates them, the prophet ought to be a very happy man. This was Major Kent's case. He foretold trouble of the most exasperating kind for Dr. O'Grady, and he was immediately justified by the event. Unfortunately he did not expect an immediate fulfilment of his words. Therefore he turned round in his chair and went to sleep again when the doctor left him. If he had been sanguine enough to expect that the doctor would be entangled in embarra.s.sments at once, he would probably have roused himself. He would have followed Dr. O'Grady back to Ballymoy and would have had the satisfaction of gloating over the first of a long series of annoying difficulties. But the Major, though confident that trouble would come, had no hope that it would begin as soon as it did.

Dr. O'Grady was riding back to Ballymoy on his bicycle when he met Mrs.

Ford, the wife of the stipendiary magistrate. She was walking briskly along the road which led out of the town. This fact at once aroused a feeling of vague uneasiness in the doctor's mind. Mrs. Ford was a stout lady of more than fifty years of age. She always wore clothes which seemed, and probably were, much too tight for her. Her husband's position and income ent.i.tled him to keep a pony trap, therefore Mrs.

Ford very seldom walked at all. Dr. O'Grady had never before seen her walk quickly. It was plain, too, that on this occasion Mrs. Ford was walking for the mere sake of walking, a most unnatural thing for her to do. The road she was on led nowhere except to Major Kent's house, several miles away, and it was quite impossible to suppose that she meant to call on him. She had, as Dr. O'Grady knew, quarrelled seriously with Major Kent two days earlier.

Dr. O'Grady, slightly anxious and very curious, got off his bicycle and approached Mrs. Ford on foot. He noticed at once that her face was purple in colour. It was generally red, and the unaccustomed exercise she was taking might account for the darker shade. Dr. O'Grady, arriving within a few yards of her, took off his hat very politely. The purple of Mrs. Ford's face darkened ominously.

"Nice day," said Dr. O'Grady. "How's Mr. Ford?"

Mrs. Ford acknowledged this greeting with a stiff, scarcely perceptible bow. Dr. O'Grady realised at once that she was angry, very seriously angry about something. Under ordinary circ.u.mstances Mrs. Ford's anger would not have caused Dr. O'Grady any uneasiness. She was nearly always angry with someone, and however angry she might be she would be obliged to call on Dr. O'Grady for a.s.sistance if either she or her husband fell ill. There was no other doctor in the neighbourhood. The simplest and easiest thing, under the circ.u.mstances, would have been to pa.s.s on without comment, and to wait patiently until Mrs. Ford either caught influenza or was so deeply offended with someone else as to forget her anger against him. Society in small country towns is held together very largely by the fact that it is highly inconvenient, if not actually impossible, to keep two quarrels burning briskly at the same time.

When, a week or two before, Mrs. Ford had been seriously angry with Mrs. Gregg, she confided her grievances to Dr. O'Grady. Now that she was annoyed with him she would be compelled to condone Mrs. Gregg's offence in order to tell her what Dr. O'Grady had done. In due time, so Dr.

O'Grady knew, he would be forgiven in order that he might listen to the story of the quarrel, which by that time she would have picked with Major Kent. Therefore the doctor's first impulse was to imitate the Levite in the parable, and, having looked at Mrs. Ford with sympathy, to pa.s.s by on the other side.

But Dr. O'Grady was engaged in a great enterprise. He did not see how Mrs. Ford's anger could make or mar the success of the Lord-Lieutenant's visit to Ballymoy, but he could not afford to take risks. No wise general likes to leave even a small wood on the flank of his line of march without discovering whether there is anything in it or not. Dr.

O'Grady determined to find out, if he could, what Mrs. Ford was sulking about.

"I daresay you have heard," he said, "about the Lord-Lieutenant's visit to Ballymoy. The date isn't fixed yet, but??"

Mrs. Ford sniffed and walked on without speaking. Dr. O'Grady was not the kind of man who is easily baffled. He turned round and walked beside her.

"I needn't tell you," he said, "that the visit may mean a good deal to Mr. Ford. We've all felt for a long time that his services and ability ent.i.tle him to some recognition from the Government."

Mrs. Ford was quite unmollified. She walked on without looking round.

She even walked a little quicker than she had been walking before. This was a foolish thing to do. She was a fat and elderly lady. Some of her clothes, if not all of them, were certainly too tight for her. The doctor was young and in good condition. She could not possibly hope to outstrip him in a race.

"My idea is," said Dr. O'Grady, "that when the Lord-Lieutenant meets Mr.

Ford and becomes personally acquainted with him?there's to be a lunch, you know, in the hotel. A pretty good lunch, the best Doyle can do.

Well, I confidently expect that when the Lord-Lieutenant finds out for himself what an able and energetic man Mr. Ford is?? After all, there are much nicer places than Ballymoy, besides all the jobs there are going under the Insurance Act, jolly well paid some of them, and you'd like living in Dublin, wouldn't you, Mrs. Ford?"

Mrs. Ford stood still suddenly. She was evidently going to say something. Dr. O'Grady waited. He had to wait for some time, because the lady was very-much out of breath. At last she spoke.

"Dr. O'Grady," she said, "I believe in plain speaking."

Neither Dr. O'Grady nor anyone else in Ballymoy doubted the truth of this. Nearly everybody had been spoken to plainly by Mrs. Ford at one time or another. Kerrigan, the butcher, was spoken to with uncompromising plainness once a week, on Sat.u.r.day mornings.

"Quite right," said Dr. O'Grady, "there's nothing like it."

"Then I may as well tell you," said Mrs. Ford, "that I think it was due to my position?however much you may dislike me personally??"

"I don't. On the contrary??"

"??Due to my position as the wife of the resident magistrate that I, and not that Mrs. Gregg, should have been invited to present the bouquet to Lady Chesterton."

Dr. O'Grady gasped. Then he realised that he had made a fearful blunder.

"Half an hour ago," said Mrs. Ford, "that woman, who isn't even a lady, bounced into my house, giggling, and told me to my face that you had asked her??"

"Silly little thing, isn't she?" said Dr. O'Grady. "But of course, you have far too much sense to be annoyed by anything she said."

"Don't imagine for a moment," said Mrs. Ford, "that I am vexed. The slight, although it was evidently intentional, does not affect me in the least. If you knew me a little better than you do, Dr. O'Grady, you would understand that I am not at all the sort of person who cares about presenting bouquets."

"Of course not," said Dr. O'Grady. "We quite realised that. We understood that in your position, as wife of the resident magistrate of the district, the presentation of a bouquet would have been infra dig.

After all, what's a bouquet? Poor little Mrs. Gregg! Of course it's a great promotion for her and she's naturally a bit above herself. But no one would dream of asking you to present a bouquet. We have far too high a respect for Mr. Ford's position."

"I think," said Mrs. Ford, "that I ought to have been consulted."

"Didn't you get my letter?"

"I got no letter whatever. The first news I had of his Excellency's intention of visiting Ballymoy came to me from that Mrs. Gregg half an hour ago, when she rushed into my drawing-room with her hair tumbling about her ears??"

"That's the worst of Doyle. He means well, but he's frightfully careless."

"What has Mr. Doyle to do with it?"

"I gave him the letter to post. Did you really not get it?"

"I got no letter whatever."

"I don't know what you must have thought of us. I don't know what Mr.

Ford must have thought. I don't know how to apologise. But the first thing we did, the very first??Mrs. Gregg and the bouquet were a mere afterthought, we just tacked her on to the programme so that the poor little woman wouldn't feel out of it. She is a silly little thing, you know. Not more than a child after all. It was better to humour her."

"What was in the letter which you say you posted?" said Mrs. Ford.

"I didn't say I posted it. I said Doyle forgot to. It's in his pocket at this moment, I expect."

"What was in it?"

"Can you ask? There is only one thing which could possibly be in it. It expresses the unanimous wish of the committee?the reception committee, you know?Major Kent's on it?that you should present an illuminated address of welcome to His Excellency."

"If such a letter were really written??"

"My dear Mrs. Ford! But I don't ask you to take my word for it. Just walk straight into Ballymoy yourself. I'll stay here till you come back.

Go into the hotel. You'll find Doyle in his own room drinking whisky and water with Thady Gallagher. Don't say a word to him. Don't ask him whether he was given a letter or not. Simply put your hand into his breast pocket and take it out."

"Thank you," said Mrs. Ford. "I do not care to have anything to do with Mr. Doyle when he is drunk."

"He won't be. Not at this hour. It takes a lot to make Doyle drunk."

"When the letter arrives, if it ever does, I shall consult Mr. Ford as to what answer I shall give."

"I can tell you what he'll say beforehand," said Dr. O'Grady. "He'll realise the importance of the illuminated address. He'll understand that it's the thing and that the bouquet??"

"Good-bye, Dr. O'Grady," said Mrs. Ford.

The doctor mounted his bicycle. His face was very nearly as purple as Mrs. Ford's. He had, with the greatest difficulty survived a crisis. He rode at top speed into Ballymoy, and dismounted, very hot, at the door of the hotel. It was shut. He ran round to the back of the house and entered the yard. Constable Moriarty and Mary Ellen were sitting side by side on the wall of the pig-stye. They were sitting very close together.

Moriarty was whistling "Eileen Allan-nah" softly in Mary Ellen's ear.