"He draws corks," put in Hennessey. "He's got a pull that bates--"
"Hennessey," interrupted Mr. Dooley, "since whin have ye been me
funnygraph? Whin me cousin ashks me riddles, I'll tell her th' answers.
G' down-shtairs an' get a cloob san'wich an' ate yourself to death.
Char-rge it to--er--char-rge it to Misther Rassendyll here--me cousin
Roop, be marritch. He looks liks a soft t'ing."
Hennessey subsided and showed an inclination to depart, and I, not
liking to see a well-meaning person thus sat upon, tried to be pleasant
to him.
"Don't go just yet, Mr. Hennessey," said I. "I should like to talk to
you."
"Mr. Rassendyll," he replied, "I'm not goin' just yet, but an invitation
to join farces with one iv the Hippojorium's cloob sandwhiches is too
much for me. I must accept. Phwat is the noomber iv your shweet?"
I gave him the number, and Hennessey departed. Before he went, however,
he comforted me somewhat by saying that he too was "a puppit in th'
han's iv an auter. Ye've got to do," said he, "whativer ye're sint t'
do. I'm told ye've killed a million Germans--bless ye!--but ye're
nawthin' but a facthory hand afther all. I'm th' background iv Dooley.
If Dooley wants to be smar-rt, I've got t' play th' fool. It's the same
with you; only you've had yer chance at a printcess, later on pla-acin'
the la-ady in a 'nonymous p'sition--which is enough for anny man, Dooley
or no Dooley."
Hennessey departed in search of his club sandwich, which was
subsequently alluded to in my bill, and for which I paid with pleasure,
for Hennessey is a good fellow. I then found myself listening to the
conversation between Dolly and Dooley.
"Roscommon, of course," Dolly was saying. What marvellous adaptability
that woman has! "How could you think, my dear cousin, that I belonged to
the farmer Dooleys?"
"I t'ought as much," said Mr. Dooley, genially, "now that I've seen ye.
Whin you put th' wor-rds 'at home' on yer car-rd, I had me doots. No
Dooley iv th' right sor-rt iver liked annyt'ing a landlord gave him; an'
whin y' expreshed satisfaction wid th' Hippojorium, I didn't at first
t'ink ye was a true Dooley. Since I've seen ye, I love ye properly,
ma'am--like th' cousin I am. I've read iv ye, just as I've read iv yer
hoosband, Cousin Roopert here be marritch, in th' biojographies of Mr.
Ant'ny Hawp, an' while I cudn't help likin' ye, I must say I didn't
t'ink ye was very deep on th' surface, an' when I read iv your elopin'
with Cousin Roop, I says to Hennessey, I says, 'Hennessey,' I says,
'that's all right, they'd bote iv 'em better die, but let us not be
asashinators,' I says; 'let 'em be joined in marritch. That's punishment
enough,' I says to Hennessey. Ye see, Miss Dooley, I have been marrit
meself."
"But I have found married life far from punishment," I heard Dolly say.
"I fear you're a sad pessimist, Mr. Dooley," she added.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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