A torrent of talk followed. Farley was an American. No one knew very
well what the talk was about. Villona and Rivière were the noisiest,
but all the men were excited. They got up on a car, squeezing
themselves together amid much laughter. They drove by the crowd,
blended now into soft colours, to a music of merry bells. They took the
train at Westland Row and in a few seconds, as it seemed to Jimmy, they
were walking out of Kingstown Station. The ticket-collector saluted
Jimmy; he was an old man:
“Fine night, sir!”
It was a serene summer night; the harbour lay like a darkened mirror at
their feet. They proceeded towards it with linked arms, singing _Cadet
Roussel_ in chorus, stamping their feet at every:
_“Ho! Ho! Hohé, vraiment!”_
They got into a rowboat at the slip and made out for the American’s
yacht. There was to be supper, music, cards. Villona said with
conviction:
“It is delightful!”
There was a yacht piano in the cabin. Villona played a waltz for Farley
and Rivière, Farley acting as cavalier and Rivière as lady. Then an
impromptu square dance, the men devising original figures. What
merriment! Jimmy took his part with a will; this was seeing life, at
least. Then Farley got out of breath and cried _“Stop!”_ A man brought
in a light supper, and the young men sat down to it for form’s sake.
They drank, however: it was Bohemian. They drank Ireland, England,
France, Hungary, the United States of America. Jimmy made a speech, a
long speech, Villona saying: _“Hear! hear!”_ whenever there was a
pause. There was a great clapping of hands when he sat down. It must
have been a good speech. Farley clapped him on the back and laughed
loudly. What jovial fellows! What good company they were!
Cards! cards! The table was cleared. Villona returned quietly to his
piano and played voluntaries for them. The other men played game after
game, flinging themselves boldly into the adventure. They drank the
health of the Queen of Hearts and of the Queen of Diamonds. Jimmy felt
obscurely the lack of an audience: the wit was flashing. Play ran very
high and paper began to pass. Jimmy did not know exactly who was
winning but he knew that he was losing. But it was his own fault for he
frequently mistook his cards and the other men had to calculate his
I.O.U.‘s for him. They were devils of fellows but he wished they would
stop: it was getting late. Someone gave the toast of the yacht _The
Belle of Newport_ and then someone proposed one great game for a
finish.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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