r at the Antient Concert Rooms
on Wednesday night she did not like the look of things. A few young men,
wearing bright blue badges in their coats, stood idle in the vestibule;
none of them wore evening dress. She passed by with her daughter and a
quick glance through the open door of the hall showed her the cause of
the stewards' idleness. At first she wondered had she mistaken the hour.
No, it was twenty minutes to eight.

In the dressing-room behind the stage she was introduced to the
secretary of the Society, Mr. Fitzpatrick. She smiled and shook his
hand. He was a little man, with a white, vacant face. She noticed that
he wore his soft brown hat carelessly on the side of his head and that
his accent was flat. He held a programme in his hand, and, while he was
talking to her, he chewed one end of it into a moist pulp. He seemed
to bear disappointments lightly. Mr. Holohan came into the dressingroom
every few minutes with reports from the box-office. The artistes talked
among themselves nervously, glanced from time to time at the mirror and
rolled and unrolled their music. When it was nearly half-past eight, the
few people in the hall began to express their desire to be entertained.
Mr. Fitzpatrick came in, smiled vacantly at the room, and said:

"Well now, ladies and gentlemen. I suppose we'd better open the ball."

Mrs. Kearney rewarded his very flat final syllable with a quick stare of
contempt, and then said to her daughter encouragingly:

"Are you ready, dear?"

When she had an opportunity, she called Mr. Holohan aside and asked him
to tell her what it meant. Mr. Holohan did not know what it meant.
He said that the committee had made a mistake in arranging for four
concerts: four was too many.

"And the artistes!" said Mrs. Kearney. "Of course they are doing their
best, but really they are not good."

Mr. Holohan admitted that the artistes were no good but the committee,
he said, had decided to let the first three concerts go as they pleased
and reserve all the talent for Saturday night. Mrs. Kearney said
nothing, but, as the mediocre items followed one another on the platform
and the few people in the hall grew fewer and fewer, she began to regret
that she had put herself to any expense for such a concert. There was
something she didn't like in the look of things and Mr. Fitzpatrick's
vacant smile irritated her very much. However, she said nothing and
waited to see how it would end. The concert expired sh