r had left it, taking with
them the cream of its contents, and in humbler people such a hunger
began to assert itself as came near bringing even crubeens and Peggy's
leg within the sphere of practical politics. While slowly struggling
through the swarming street the perfume of mutton chops stole
exquisitely forth from the door of one of the hotels, accompanied by the
sound of a subdued fusillade of soda-water corks; over the heads of
the filthy press of people round the entrance and the thirsty throng at
the bar might be seen a procession of gaitered legs going upstairs to
luncheon. It seemed an excellent idea. The air within was blue with
tobacco smoke, flushed henchwomen staggered to and fro with arms spread
wide across trays of whiskies and sodas, opening doors revealed rooms
full of men, mutton chops and mastication. There was wildness in the eye
of the attendant as she took the order for yet another luncheon. She
fled, with the assurance that it would be ready immediately, yet
subsequent events suggested that even while she spoke the sheep that was
to respond to that thirty-fifth order for mutton chops was browsing in
the pastures of Bandon.

For eyes that had last looked on food at 7 A.M., neither the view of the
street obtainable from the first floor parlour window, nor even the
contemplation of the remarkable sacred pictures that adorned its walls,
had the interest they might have held earlier in the day, and the dirty
cruet-stand on the dirtier tablecloth was endued with an almost hypnotic
fascination in its suggestion of coming sustenance. At the end of the
first hour a stupor verging on indifference had set in; it was far on in
the second when the dish of fried mutton chops, the hard potatoes, and
the tepid whiskies and sodas were flung upon the board. No preliminary
to a week's indigestion had been neglected, and a deserved success was
the result.

The business of the fair was still transacted at large throughout the
hotel. From behind the mound of mutton chops a buyer shoved a roll of
dirty one-pound notes round the potato dish, and after due haggling
received back one, according to the mystic Irish custom of "luck-penny".
On the sofa two farmers carried on a transaction in which the swap of a
colt, boot money, and luck-penny were blended into one trackless maze of
astuteness and arithmetic. On the wall above them a print in which
Ananias and Sapphira were the central figures gave a simple and suitable
fi