similarly affected. The Mister only addressed two
remarks to Mrs. O'Halloran. The first one referred
to the European war. "Tom Philipson was telling
me to-day that we should be putting more pressure
on Prussia." Mrs. O'Halloran glacially agreed, but
it led to nothing further, as her attention was dis-
tracted by Kegworthy, who, in attacking a slab of
stiff claret jelly, shot a large piece off his plate, chased
it with his^poon, and finally put it in his mouth with
his fingers. This gave me an excuse to laugh aloud,
but Mrs. O'Halloran didn't even smile. When the
port had been round once The Mister raised his glass
and said, with a vague air of something special being
expected of him, "If there's one man in Limerick I
esteem, sure to God it's your husband. Long life to
Mr. O'Halloran." At this, Kegworthy, who had been
looking more morose than ever, made his only
audible contribution to the festive occasion,
"Who the hell's O'Halloran?" he enquired. His
intonation implied hostility. There was, naturally
enough, a ghastly pause in the proceedings. Then
Mrs. O'Donnell arose and ushered her guests out of
the room in good order.
There I sat, and for a long time neither of my com-
panions moved. Closing my eyes, I thought about
that dinner-party, and came to the conclusion that
it had been funny.
When I opened them again I ascertained that both
The Mister and Kegworthy were fast asleep. Nothing
more remains to be told, except that soon afterwards
I took Kegworthy home and put him to bed.
On my last day in Ireland I went out in soft sun-
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