"I may introduce my subject," he said, "by saying that I have a high
respect for you. So has O'Donoghue. Haven't you, O'Donoghue?"
"I have," said O'Donoghue.
"Thanks," said the judge. "It's kind of you both to say that."
"Not at all; it's the simple truth. I look up to you a good deal in
your capacity of judge. Judge of the King's Bench, I think?"
The judge nodded.
"In order to make my position quite plain," said Meldon, "and to
prevent any possibility of your thinking that I'm meddling with your
affairs in an unwarrantable manner, I may add that I recognise in you
one of the pillars of society, a bulwark of our civil and religious
liberty, a mainstay of law and order. So does O'Donoghue."
"I'm a Nationalist myself," said the doctor, who felt that he was being
committed to sentiments which he could not entirely approve.
"I'm speaking of Sir Gilbert as an English judge," said Meldon, "and
the law and order I refer to are, so far as Sir Gilbert is concerned,
purely English. Nothing that I am saying now compromises you in the
slightest either with regard to the land question or Home Rule."
"I didn't understand that at the time you spoke," said the doctor; "but
if you don't mean any more than that I'm with you heart and soul.
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