d in good humour.

"And how is she now, doctor?" he said, as they sat down to table.

"Is it Anty?--why, you know I didn't mean to see her since I was here
this morning, till nine o'clock."

"Oh, true; so you were saying. I forgot. Well, will you take a glass of
wine?"--and Barry filled his own glass quite full.

He drank his wine at dinner like a glutton, who had only a short
time allowed him, and wished during that time to swallow as much as
possible; and he tried to hurry his companion in the same manner. But
the doctor didn't choose to have wine forced down his throat; he wished
to enjoy himself, and remonstrated against Barry's violent hospitality.

At last, dinner was over; the things were taken away, they both drew
their chairs over the fire, and began the business of the evening--the
making and consumption of punch. Barry had determined to begin upon the
subject which lay so near his heart, at eight o'clock. He had thought
it better to fix an exact hour, and had calculated that the whole
matter might be completed before Colligan went over to the inn. He
kept continually looking at his watch, and gulping down his drink, and
thinking over and over again how he would begin the conversation.

"You're very comfortable here, Lynch," said the doctor, stretching his
long legs before the fire, and putting his dirty boots upon the fender.

"Yes, indeed," said Barry, not knowing what the other was saying.

"All you want's a wife, and you'd have as warm a house as there is in
Galway. You'll be marrying soon, I suppose?"

"Well, I wouldn't wonder if I did. You don't take your punch; there's
brandy there, if you like it better than whiskey."

"This is very good, thank you--couldn't be better. You haven't much
land in your own hands, have you?"

"Why, no--I don't think I have. What's that you're saying?--land?--No,
not much: if there's a thing I hate, it's farming."

"Well, upon my word you're wrong. I don't see what else a gentleman has
to do in the country. I wish to goodness I could give up the gallipots
[41] and farm a few acres of my own land. There's nothing I wish so
much as to get a bit of land: indeed, I've been looking out for it, but
it's so difficult to get."

[FOOTNOTE 41: gallipots--A gallipot was a small ceramic vessel
used by apothecaries to hold medicines. The term
was also used colloquially to refer to apothecaries
themselves and even