O'FLAHERTY [over his shoulder]. She says Gladstone was an
Irishman, Sir. What call would he have to meddle with Ireland as
he did if he wasn't?

SIR PEARCE. What nonsense! Does she suppose Mr Asquith is an
Irishman?

O'FLAHERTY. She won't give him any credit for Home Rule, Sir. She
says Redmond made him do it. She says you told her so.

SIR PEARCE [convicted out of his own mouth]. Well, I never meant
her to take it up in that ridiculous way. [He moves to the end of
the garden seat on O'Flaherty's left.] I'll give her a good
talking to when she comes. I'm not going to stand any of her
nonsense.

O'FLAHERTY. It's not a bit of use, sir. She says all the English
generals is Irish. She says all the English poets and great men
was Irish. She says the English never knew how to read their own
books until we taught them. She says we're the lost tribes of the
house of Israel and the chosen people of God. She says that the
goddess Venus, that was born out of the foam of the sea, came up
out of the water in Killiney Bay off Bray Head. She says that
Moses built the seven churches, and that Lazarus was buried in
Glasnevin.

SIR PEARCE. Bosh! How does she know he was? Did you ever ask her?

O'FLAHERTY. I did, sir, often.