of the visit was as I have said disturbing. I
prefer monotony. But if things must fall splashing into the pool of my
life, I would as soon they took the form of visits to Castle Affey as
any other.

The next thing which happened that morning was a deputation. It
consisted of six out of the twenty carters whom Crossan has organized
in the interests of our fishing industry. They made the modest request
that I should drive my nephew Godfrey out of the neighbourhood. I felt
the strongest possible sympathy with them. If I were a carter, a
fisherman, a shopkeeper, or a farmer, and lived in Kilmore, I should
certainly wish Godfrey to live somewhere else. I did not even question
the members of the deputation about their special reasons for wanting
to get rid of Godfrey. They told me in general terms that he was
interfering in business which was "none of his." I wanted no evidence
in support of such a statement. Godfrey always interferes in
everything. A very freckled young man who seemed to be junior member
of the deputation, added that Godfrey "spied" upon them. Of course
Godfrey spied on them. He spies on me.

Strong as my sympathy was with the perfectly reasonable request of the
deputation, I could not act as I was asked. Godfrey is, of course, in
my employment. He collects the head rents still payable to me from
some parts of the town which were not sold when I parted with the rest
of my estate. For this I pay him L200 a year. I could, I suppose,
dismiss him if I chose; but the plain fact is that if I dismissed
Godfrey he would immediately starve or go to the workhouse. He is
quite unfit to earn his living in any way. Once, after great
exertions, I secured for him a kind of minor clerkship in a government
office. His duties, so far as I was able to learn, were to put stamps
on envelopes, and he was provided with a damp sponge to prevent any
injury which might happen to his tongue through licking the stamps. At
the end of a year he was dismissed as hopelessly incompetent. He came
back to me, beautifully dressed, with a small despatch-box full of
tradesmen's bills, and a grievance against the government. It was
plain to me after that experiment that Godfrey could never earn his
own living. I did not see my way to let him drift into the workhouse.
He is, little as I like him, the heir to my title, and, in mere
decency, I could not allow the cost of his support to fall on the
rates.

This is just one of the ways in which th