patsy

Now, at the rear, a short hallway led off to a small kitchen, and here, at a table, alone, sat Patsy Horan, proprietor of the Vendome, consuming a hasty supper ere the evening rush of business.

"A defacin' me walls," cried Patsy, at the same time emitting a string of vivid and vile, rather than virile, epithets of opprobrium.

"Get out wid yeh; yeh talk too much wid yer mouth," quoted Patsy, emphasizing his remarks with flourishes of the knife and fork.

The sight of his meekly retreating back must have further enraged Patsy Horan, for that worthy, dropping the table implements, sprang upon him.

But Patsy, charging like a bull, had the momentum of his rush, while Watson, whirling to meet him, had no momentum.

Patsy, after various vain efforts to inflict damage, made an overture.

Watson let go, but when Patsy scrambled to his feet he stood over his recumbent foe, ready to strike.

"If yer a gentleman, get up," quoth Patsy, his pale blue eyes aflame with wrath, his fist ready for a crushing blow.

There had been his brother Patsy, and his sister Kathleen, who had disappeared two months before, who had ceased and no longer were.

Once, Terrence, who was nearly as large as an Airedale and fully as lion-hearted--Terrence the Magnificent, as Tom Haggin called him-- had caught such a bush-dog trespassing on the beach and given him a delightful thrashing, in which Jerry and Michael, and Patsy and Kathleen, who were at the time alive, had joined with many shrill yelps and sharp nips.

He, too, was rough-coated, as was Michael, and as Patsy and Kathleen had been, Jerry being the one smooth-coated member of the family.