Tea was spread, on a clean
cloth, with all sorts of good things to eat; an English mail had brought
him a batch of letters and journals. Altogether it was a very happy
home-coming.
When he had had a sponge-down and finished tea, over which he listened,
with a zest that surprised him, to a hundred and one domestic details:
afterwards he and Polly strolled arm-in-arm to the top of the little
hill to which, before marriage, he used to carry her letters. Here they
sat and talked till night fell; and, for the first time, Mahony tasted
the dregless pleasure of coming back from the world outside with his
toll of adventure, and being met by a woman's lively and disinterested
sympathy. Agreeable incidents gained, those that were the reverse of
pleasing lost their sting by being shared with Polly. Not that he told
her everything; of the dark side of life he greatly preferred little
Polly to remain ignorant. Still, as far as it went, it was a delightful
experience. In return he confessed to her something of the uncertainty
that had beset him, on hearing his opponent's counsel state the case for
the other side. It was disquieting to think he might be suspected of
advancing a claim that was not strictly just.
"Suspected? . . . YOU? Oh, how could anybody be so silly!"
For all the fatigues of his day Mahony could not sleep. And after
tossing and tumbling for some time, he rose, threw on his clothing and
went out to smoke a pipe in front of the store.
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