: two little
minsters of jelly, red and yellow; a shallow dish full of blocks
of blancmange and red jam, a large green leaf-shaped dish with a
stalk-shaped handle, on which lay bunches of purple raisins and peeled
almonds, a companion dish on which lay a solid rectangle of Smyrna
figs, a dish of custard topped with grated nutmeg, a small bowl full of
chocolates and sweets wrapped in gold and silver papers and a glass vase
in which stood some tall celery stalks. In the centre of the table there
stood, as sentries to a fruit-stand which upheld a pyramid of oranges
and American apples, two squat old-fashioned decanters of cut glass, one
containing port and the other dark sherry. On the closed square piano
a pudding in a huge yellow dish lay in waiting and behind it were three
squads of bottles of stout and ale and minerals, drawn up according to
the colours of their uniforms, the first two black, with brown and
red labels, the third and smallest squad white, with transverse green
sashes.

Gabriel took his seat boldly at the head of the table and, having looked
to the edge of the carver, plunged his fork firmly into the goose. He
felt quite at ease now for he was an expert carver and liked nothing
better than to find himself at the head of a well-laden table.

"Miss Furlong, what shall I send you?" he asked. "A wing or a slice of
the breast?"

"Just a small slice of the breast."

"Miss Higgins, what for you?"

"O, anything at all, Mr. Conroy."

While Gabriel and Miss Daly exchanged plates of goose and plates of ham
and spiced beef Lily went from guest to guest with a dish of hot floury
potatoes wrapped in a white napkin. This was Mary Jane's idea and she
had also suggested apple sauce for the goose but Aunt Kate had said that
plain roast goose without any apple sauce had always been good enough
for her and she hoped she might never eat worse. Mary Jane waited on
her pupils and saw that they got the best slices and Aunt Kate and Aunt
Julia opened and carried across from the piano bottles of stout and ale
for the gentlemen and bottles of minerals for the ladies. There was a
great deal of confusion and laughter and noise, the noise of orders
and counter-orders, of knives and forks, of corks and glass-stoppers.
Gabriel began to carve second helpings as soon as he had finished the
first round without serving himself. Everyone protested loudly so that
he compromised by taking a long draught of stout for he had found the
c