"
"I never was stiff, Art, but I always was, and always will be, firm,
when I know I'm in the right; as I said about the child, what good would
my drinkin' that tumbler of punch do Margaret? None in life; it would
do her no good, and it would do myself harm. Sure, we did drink her
health."
"An' is that your respect for her?" said Art, in a huff, "if that's it,
why--"
"There's not a man livin' respects her more highly, or knows her worth
betther than I do," replied Frank, interrupting him, "but I simply ax
you, Art, what mark of true respect would the fact of my drinkin' that
tumbler of punch be to her? The world's full of these foolish errors,
and bad ould customs, and the sooner they're laid aside, an' proper ones
put in their place, the betther."
"Oh, very well, Frank, the sorra one o' me will ask you to take it agin;
I only say, that if I was in your house, as you are in mine, I wouldn't
break squares about a beggarly tumbler of punch."
"So much the worse, Art, I would rather you would; there, now, you
have taken your third tumbler, yet you said when we sat down that you'd
confine yourself to two; is that keepin' your word? I know you may call
breakin' it now a trifle, but I tell you, that when a man begins to
break his word in trifles, he'll soon go on to greater things, and maybe
end without much regardin' it in any thing.
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