BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 53 



O'Flannigan ranged forth throug-h the sleeping 

 house to call the chambermaid, or when at 7.15 

 the underdone poached eggs and the chill phantom 

 of yesterday's coffee were achieved by the cook 

 in some favourable interval of her toilet. Nor, 

 by the time that we had arranged ourselves upon 

 the Tommies, was the coolness so striking as we 

 could have wished, except in the representative 

 of the landladies, with whom we had had occasion 

 to discuss the bill. This matter caused an awk- 

 wardness in our usually effective farewells — so 

 much so that we felt constrained to start at full 

 gallop, and to keep up the pace till we believed 

 ourselves out of sight of the group at the hotel 

 door. The Tommies shied as though before that 

 hour they had never looked on the things of 

 earth, and the firry flank of the Moel Dinas had 

 not intervened when Miss O'Flannigan's hair came 

 down and the strap of my hold-all had burst. 

 A more determined effort than usual on Tommy's 

 part to go home placed me for a moment facing 

 the Griffith Arms, — a glimpse worth gathering, dis- 



