d passed the night under Francesca's
bed, and the porter was giving him what he called 'a good hand and fut
downstairs.' He had put down the hot water for this operation, and on
taking up the burden again we heard him exclaim: "Arrah! look at that
now! May the divil fly away with the excommunicated ould jug!" It
was past saving, the jug, and leaked so freely that one had to be
exceedingly nimble to put to use any of the smoky water in it. "Thim
fools o' turf do nothing but smoke on me," apologised the venerable
servitor, who then asked, "would we be pleased to order breakquist." We
were wise in our generation, and asked for nothing but bacon, eggs, and
tea; and after a smoky bath and a change of raiment we seated at our
repast in the coffee-room, feeling wonderfully fresh and cheerful. By
looking directly at each other most of the time, and making experimental
journeys from plate to mouth, thus barring out any intimate knowledge of
the tablecloth and the waiter's linen, we managed to make a breakfast.
Francesca is enough to give any one a good appetite. Ronald Macdonald
will be a lucky fellow, I think, to begin his day by sitting opposite
her, for her eyes shine like those of a child, and one's gaze lingers
fondly on the cool freshness of her cheek. Breakfast over and the bill
settled, we speedily shook off as much of the dust of Mrs. Duddy's hotel
as could be shaken off, and departed on the most decrepit sidecar that
ever rolled on two wheels, being wished a safe journey by a slatternly
maid who stood in the doorway, by the wide Mrs. Duddy herself, who
realised in her capacious person the picturesque Irish phrase, 'the
full-of-the-door of a woman,' and by our friend the head waiter, who
leaned against Mrs. Duddy's ancestral pillars in such a way that the
morning sun shone full upon his costume and revealed its weaknesses to
our reluctant gaze.

The driver said it was eleven miles to Cappoquin, the guide-book
fourteen, but this difference of opinion, we find, is only the
difference between Irish and English miles, for which our driver had an
unspeakable contempt, as of a vastly inferior quality. He had, on the
other hand, a great respect for Mrs. Duddy and her comfortable, cleanly,
and courteous establishment (as per advertisement), and the warmest
admiration for the village in which she had appropriately located
herself, a village which he alluded to as 'wan of the natest towns in
the ring of Ireland, for if ye made a