t one for sugar myself, but they tell
me there's them that drinks tea with ne'er a grain of sugar in it at
all. They must be queer people that do that."

She held a spoon, heaped up with sugar, over the doctor's cup as
she spoke. He was obliged to stop lecturing the sergeant in order
to convince her that his tea was already quite sweet enough. It was,
indeed, far too sweet for his taste, for he was one of those queer
people whose tastes Mrs. Finnegan could not understand.

The drive home ought to have been in every way pleasanter than the drive
out to Ballygran. Patsy Doolan's mare was subdued in temper; so docile,
indeed, that she allowed Jimmy to put her between the shafts. She made
no attempt to stand on her hind legs, and did not shy even at a young
pig which bolted across the road in front of her. Dr. Lovaway could sit
on his side of the car without holding on. The rain had ceased and great
wisps of mist were sweeping clear of the hilltops, leaving fine views
of grey rock and heather-clad slopes. But Dr. Lovaway did not enjoy
himself. Being an Englishman he had a strong sense of duty, and was
afflicted as no Irishman ever is by a civic conscience. He felt that he
ought to bring home somehow to Sergeant Rahilly a sense of the iniquity
of trying to shut up sane, or almost sane, people in lunatic asylums.
Being of a gentle and friendly nature he hated making himself unpleasant
to anyone, especially to a man like Sergeant Rahilly, who had been very
kind to him.

The path of duty was not made any easier to him by the behaviour of the
sergeant. Instead of being overwhelmed by a sense of discovered guilt,
the police, both Rahilly and Constable Ma-lone, were pleasantly chatty,
and evidently bent on making the drive home as agreeable as possible for
the doctor. They told him the names of the hills and the more distant
mountains. They showed the exact bank at the side of the road from
behind which certain murderous men had fired at a land agent in 1885.
They explained the route of a light railway which a forgotten Chief
Secretary had planned but had never built owing to change of Government
and his loss of office. Not one word was said about Jimmy, or lunatics,
or asylums. It was with great difficulty that Dr. Lovaway succeeded at
last in breaking in on the smooth flow of chatty reminiscences. But when
he did speak he spoke strongly. As with most gentle and timid men, his
language was almost violent when he had screwed him