ortly before ten,
and everyone went home quickly.

The concert on Thursday night was better attended, but Mrs. Kearney
saw at once that the house was filled with paper. The audience behaved
indecorously, as if the concert were an informal dress rehearsal. Mr.
Fitzpatrick seemed to enjoy himself; he was quite unconscious that Mrs.
Kearney was taking angry note of his conduct. He stood at the edge of
the screen, from time to time jutting out his head and exchanging a
laugh with two friends in the corner of the balcony. In the course of
the evening, Mrs. Kearney learned that the Friday concert was to be
abandoned and that the committee was going to move heaven and earth to
secure a bumper house on Saturday night. When she heard this, she sought
out Mr. Holohan. She buttonholed him as he was limping out quickly with
a glass of lemonade for a young lady and asked him was it true. Yes, it
was true.

"But, of course, that doesn't alter the contract," she said. "The
contract was for four concerts."

Mr. Holohan seemed to be in a hurry; he advised her to speak to Mr.
Fitzpatrick. Mrs. Kearney was now beginning to be alarmed. She called
Mr. Fitzpatrick away from his screen and told him that her daughter had
signed for four concerts and that, of course, according to the terms
of the contract, she should receive the sum originally stipulated for,
whether the society gave the four concerts or not. Mr. Fitzpatrick, who
did not catch the point at issue very quickly, seemed unable to resolve
the difficulty and said that he would bring the matter before the
committee. Mrs. Kearney's anger began to flutter in her cheek and she
had all she could do to keep from asking:

"And who is the Cometty pray?"

But she knew that it would not be ladylike to do that: so she was
silent.

Little boys were sent out into the principal streets of Dublin early on
Friday morning with bundles of handbills. Special puffs appeared in all
the evening papers, reminding the music loving public of the treat which
was in store for it on the following evening. Mrs. Kearney was
somewhat reassured, but he thought well to tell her husband part of
her suspicions. He listened carefully and said that perhaps it would be
better if he went with her on Saturday night. She agreed. She respected
her husband in the same way as she respected the General Post Office, as
something large, secure and fixed; and though she knew the small number
of his talents she appreciated