"Truly, a Daniel come to judgment," murmured Arthur.
"It's a fine view to take of it," the Boss thought.
"Are you afraid to ask Ledwith for an opinion?" Arthur suggested.
"What's he got to do with it?" Everard snapped, unsoftened by the mellow atmosphere of the feast.
"It is no longer a practical question with me," Owen said cheerfully. "I have always said that if the common people of the British Isles got an understanding of each other, and a better liking for each other, the end of oppression would come very soon. They are kept apart by the artificial hindrances raised by the aristocracy of birth and money. The common people easily fraternize, if they are permitted. See them in this country, living, working, intermarrying, side by side."
"How will that sound among the brethren?" said Arthur disappointed.
His mother flashed him a look of triumph, and Lord Constantine looked foolishly happy.
"As the utterance of a maniac, of course. Have they ever regarded me as sane?" he answered easily.
"And what becomes of your dream?" Arthur persisted.
"I have myself become a dream," he answered sadly. "I am passing into the land of dreams, of shadows. My dream was Ireland; a principle that would bring forth its own flower, fruit, and seed; not a department of an empire. Who knows what is best in this world of change? Some day men may realize the poet's dream:
"The parliament of man, the federation of the world."
Arthur surrendered with bad grace. He had expected from Ledwith the last, grand, fiery denunciation which would have swept the room as a broadside sweeps a deck, and hurled the schemes of his mother and Lord Constantine into the sea. Sad, sad, to see how champagne can undo such a patriot! For that matter the golden wine had undone the entire party. Judy declared to her dying day that the alliance was toasted amid cheers before the close of the banquet; that Lord Constantine in his delight kissed Anne as she left the room; with many other circumstances too improbable to find a place in a veracious history. It is a fact, however, that the great scheme which still agitates the peoples interested, had its success depended on the guests of Anne Dillon, would have been adopted that night. The dinner was a real triumph.