260 STRAY -AW AYS 



and Kate thought his pink cheeks and httle black 

 moustache singularly handsome. 



" Is that yourself, Dcvine ? " he said, as he drove a 

 corkscreAV in. " You'll find a friend or two lookin' out 

 for you in there," with a jerk of his head towards a 

 partition. 



Devine opened a door in the partition, and led the 

 way into a little gas -lit room where there was just 

 sufficient space for three benches round a table. Green 

 and orange tea-boxes formed one side of the room, 

 above them the sealed and serried mouths of bottles 

 rose in tiers to the ceiling ; the brawl of the outer shop 

 came freely in over the top of the partition. A man 

 and a woman were sitting at the table, with glasses 

 before them; the woman's eyes gleamed darkly in 

 the shadow cast by the brim of her hat, as she looked 

 up at the newcomers. 



" Well, Mr. Devine," she said in a twangy Irish- 

 American accent, " you don't seem accustomed to 

 keeping appointments much ! However, I suppose 

 when there's a lady in the case we mustn't complain." 



Kate blushed egregiously, and would have given 

 worlds to utter her usual large kitchen laugh, but there 

 was that about Mrs. Nolan's hat and cape that told her 

 she was being introduced to high society, where gravity 

 of manner befitted social junctures. 



" Oh no, no complaints allowed here," replied 

 Devine, with his arm round Kate, " not when I've 

 brought a friend to introduce her to you, Mrs. Nolan." 



Mrs. Nolan shook hands with Kate; the two men 

 lifted their hats. It was an epoch-making moment in 

 the social experiences of Kate Byrne. 



During the next quarter of an hour other such were 

 added, impressions whose vividness began to be 

 clouded during the progress of a second glass of port. 

 Her mouth seemed to herself to stretch into an un- 



