“Do you mean for the borough?” asked Nelligan. “I do, sir,--I mean for the borough!” “Not till we have consulted my 'august leader,' I hope,” broke in Magennis. “I'm for managing our own affairs ourselves,” said the priest. “What we want is a man of our own; and if that young gentleman there will take the pledges we should propose, I don't know that we'd readily get the like of him.” The silence that now fell upon the party was ominous; it was plain that either the priest's proposition was not fully acquiesced in, or that the mode of announcing it was too abrupt. Perhaps this latter appeared the case to his own eyes, for he was the first to speak. “Of course what I have said now is strictly among ourselves, and not to be mentioned outside of this room; for until my friend Dan Nelligan here consents to take the field against the Martin interest, there is no chance of opening the borough. Let him once agree to _that_, and the member for Oughterard will be his own nominee.” “Do you really think so?” asked Nelligan, eagerly. “I know it, sir; and every gentleman at this table knows it.” A strong chorus in assent murmured around the board. “It would be a great struggle,” muttered Nelligan. “And a great victory!” said the priest. “What a deal of money, too, it would cost!” “You have the money, Dan Nelligan; and let me tell you one thing,”--here he leaned over his chair and whispered some words in the other's ear. Old Nelligan's face flushed as he listened, and his eyes sparkled with intense excitement. “If I thought _that_--if I only thought that, Father Rafferty--I 'd spend half my fortune on it to-morrow.” “It's as true as I'm a living man,” said the priest, solemnly; and then with a motion of his hand gestured caution, for Massingbred was slowly ascending the steps, and about to enter the room. With an instinctive readiness all his own, he saw in the embarrassed and conscious looks around that he had himself been the object of their discussion, and with the same shrewdness he detected their favorable feeling towards him. “I have made them my own!” muttered he to himself. “He 'll do our work well!” said the priest in his heart. CHAPTER XI. YOUNG NELLIGAN, AS INTERPRETED IN TWO WAYS. “I rather like that young Nelligan,” said Martin, the day after Joseph had made his first appearance at dinner. “He talks pleasantly, and nothing of a pedant, as I half dreaded he might be.” “I thought his manner respectful, and very proper for his station,” said Lady Dorothea, with an air of dignity. “He spoke of politics, too, with less of prejudice, less of class bitterness, than I could have expected.” “Some policy, perhaps, in that,” remarked her Ladyship. “Possibly!” said Martin, with a careless shrug of the shoulders. “He was in a measure on his trial amongst us, and felt the importance of making a favorable first impression.”