BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK, 153 



for table-dlwte were, as the fashion articles say, 

 dainty confections, composed of a damp habit-skirt, 

 a mackintosh, shirts hot from the hotel laundry, 

 and the severest of the plaid-shawls. It is scarce- 

 ly to be wondered at that the sole other occupant 

 of the hotel, a godly young amateur photographer, 

 should have awaited us somewhat nervously as we 

 swept through the long room towards a table laid 

 for three, and should have carved the soup and 

 fish with a trembling hand. With the chicken, 

 however, the photographer had almost ceased to 

 look round for our keeper, and a conversation 

 about Thornton Pickard shutters and time-ex- 

 posures w^as beginning to thrive at the hands of 

 Miss O'Flannigan, who affects some acquaintance 

 with these things. The evening finished with all 

 the domesticity imparted by a fire in the drawing- 

 room and a display of negatives, Kodaks, shoulder- 

 straps, and other ingredients of a photographic 

 walking tour. We felt that we were a godsend to 

 this good and lonely youth, and parted from him 

 with every hope that on the morrow he would ask 



