The Dead

`Let us toast them all three together. Let us drink to their health, wealth, long life, happiness, and prosperity and may they long continue to hold the proud and self-won position which they hold in their profession and the position of honour and affection which they hold in our hearts.'

All the guests stood up, glass in hand, and turning towards the three seated ladies, sang in unison, with Mr Browne as leader:

For they are jolly gay fellows,
For they are jolly gay fellows,
For they are jolly gay fellows,
Which nobody can deny.

Aunt Kate was making frank use of her handkerchief and even Aunt Julia seemed moved. Freddy Malins beat time with his pudding-fork and the singers turned towards one another, as if in melodious conference, while they sang with emphasis:

Unless he tells a lie,
Unless he tells a lie.

Then, turning once more towards their hostesses, they sang:

For they are jolly gay fellows,
For they are jolly gay fellows,
For they are jolly gay fellows,
Which nobody can deny.

The acclamation which followed was taken up beyond the door of the supper-room by many of the other guests and renewed time after time, Freddy Malins acting as officer with his fork on high.

*

The piercing morning air came into the hall where they were standing so that Aunt Kate said:

`Close the door, somebody. Mrs Malins will get her death of cold.'

`Browne is out there, Aunt Kate,' said Mary Jane.

`Browne is everywhere,' said Aunt Kate, lowering her voice.

Mary Jane laughed at her tone.

`Really,' she said archly, `he is very attentive.'

`He has been laid on here like the gas,' said Aunt Kate in the same tone, `all during the Christmas.'

She laughed herself this time good-humouredly and then added quickly:

`But tell him to come in, Mary Jane, and close the door. I hope to goodness he didn't hear me.'

At that moment the hall-door was opened and Mr Browne came in from the doorstep, laughing as if his heart would break. He was dressed in a long green overcoat with mock astrakhan cuffs and collar and wore on his head an oval fur cap. He pointed down the snow-covered quay from where the sound of shrill prolonged whistling was borne in.

`Teddy will have all the cabs in Dublin out,' he said.

Gabriel advanced from the little pantry behind the office, struggling into his overcoat and, looking round the hall, said.

`Gretta not down yet?'

`She's getting on her things, Gabriel,' said Aunt Kate.

`Who's playing up there?' asked Gabriel.

`Nobody. They're all gone.'

`O no, Aunt Kate,' said Mary Jane. `Bartell D'Arcy and Miss O'Callaghan aren't gone yet.'

`Someone is fooling at the piano anyhow,' said Gabriel.

Mary Jane glanced at Gabriel and Mr Browne and said with a shiver:

`It makes me feel cold to look at you two gentlemen muffled up like that. I wouldn't like to face your journey home at this hour.'

`I'd like nothing better this minute,' said Mr Browne stoutly, `than a rattling fine walk in the country or a fast drive with a good spanking goer between the shafts.'

`We used to have a very good horse and trap at home,' said Aunt Julia, sadly.

`The never-to-be-forgotten Johnny,' said Mary Jane, laughing.

Aunt Kate and Gabriel laughed too.

`Why, what was wonderful about Johnny?' asked Mr Browne.

`The late lamented Patrick Morkan, our grandfather, that is,' explained Gabriel, `commonly known in his later years as the old gentleman, was a glue-boiler.'

`O, now, Gabriel,' said Aunt Kate, laughing, `he had a starch mill.'

`Well, glue or starch,' said Gabriel, `the old gentleman had a horse by the name of Johnny. And Johnny used to work in the old gentleman's mill, walking round and round in order to drive the mill. That was all very well; but now comes the tragic part about Johnny. One fine day the old gentleman thought he'd like to drive out with the quality to a military review in the park.'

`The Lord have mercy on his soul,' said Aunt Kate, compassionately.

`Amen,' said Gabriel. `So the old gentleman, as I said, harnessed Johnny and put on his very best tall hat and his very best stock collar and drove out in grand style from his ancestral mansion somewhere near Back Lane, I think.'

Everyone laughed, even Mrs Malins, at Gabriel's manner, and Aunt Kate said:

`O, now, Gabriel, he didn't live in Back Lane, really. Only the mill was there.'

`Out from the mansion of his forefathers,' continued Gabriel, `he drove with Johnny. And everything went on beautifully until Johnny came in sight of King Billy's statue: and whether he fell in love with the horse King Billy sits on or whether he thought he was back again in the mill, anyway he began to walk round the statue.'

Gabriel paced in a circle round the hall in his goloshes amid the laughter of the others.