DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 227 



that time. It is quite usual to hear people say, 'Oh ! 

 let Emery manage, and there will be no trouble.' He 

 had left little to chance : beds and beats had been 

 arranged weeks prior, so we had only to move in on 

 the appointed day. This we did, to find that others 

 had m.oved in either earlier on that day or some 

 time previous. 



The hotel was not the huge structure that now stands 

 on the spot, but, next after a limited number of bed- 

 rooms, there was a drawing-]:oom; and then, following 

 in importance, a dining-room. We slept in the dining- 

 room the first night; believe me, if you can, not from 

 choice, although there was much that was vev}' choice — 

 choice smells of baked, boiled, and fried, choice groans, 

 choice snoring, and choice wishes. A night of such 

 purgatory is cheaply bought if, ever after, you feel 

 more grateful for a sweet, soft bed. I w^as so truly 

 grateful when in one the next night that I almost 

 desired to keep awake to enjoy the comfort of it. 



Leenane is near the house in which a whole family, 

 named Joyce, was killed by Fenians, and Miss Balfour 

 having paid a visit to the spot soon after, a fact much 

 noticed by the Press, caused ladies innumerable and 

 various to show their courage by following her example; 

 hence the spasmodic rushes such as that which robbed 

 us of our beds. These females, fresh ones every day, 

 worried me with their loud talk of how to manage 

 things. Now and then a sweeter female voice from 

 amongst the crowd would catch the ear and call 

 the eye, but, oh, my ! what variations in voice and 

 gesture the masculine, travelling woman has. There 

 was a large assembly of them at the dinner-table on 

 the third day .after our arrival, and we miglit have 

 been much edified by their conversation, up to a 

 certain period, had the ladies been content to talk 

 one at a time; but when that period came we were 

 given something to think about that concerned us 

 personally. The waiter, with a hand on Emery's 



