Father Greer, as Dr. Mangan remarked subsequently, took Barty's making
a fool of himself very well. He put his head on one side, his black
eyebrows went up, and he again uttered that succession of sniffs that
served him for a laugh.

"It seems that I have made a railing accusation without meaning it,
and brought down fire from heaven, like the Prophet Elijah, only to
find that I am myself to forrum the burnt offering!" he said,
pleasantly. "Well, well, Barty, don't consume me entirely in your just
indignation, and I'll promise you to make no insinuendoes in future as
to whether you're a good or bad Irishman!"

I am unable to determine if Father Greer deliberately devised this
felicitous amalgamation of the two words that were in his mind, or if
it was unintentional, and an indication that Barty's brief flare of
revolt had flustered him a little. I am inclined to the latter theory.
In any case, the word is a useful one.




CHAPTER XVI


Christian was in the kennels, in their innermost depths. She was, in
fact, seated on the bench of "the ladies" lodging-house, on the dry
and rustling cushion of bracken on which Major Talbot-Lowry bedded his
pack.

Yearning to her, sitting all over her, covering her with their