Solitary Island, Chapters IV-V [pp. 358-379]

366 SOLITARY ISLAND. [Dec.,
mirror-" that's doin' his best to amuse ye, an' isn't long for this
world-only forty years or so."
Florian smilingly brought forth the bottle, which held a
feeble wine-glassful. The smile that for a moment illuminated
Peter's face at sight of the open closet faded under a cloud of
sorrow, and the expression "Oh!-ah!" signified his intense disappointment. But he said nothing as he gloomily wished Florian
good luck and drained the glass with a lingering look at its bare,
shining emptiness.
"Paul is now the pet of society," said Florian; "and from
this time we will hardly get a glimpse of him, so many parties
and balls will be thrust on him."
Parties and balls!" said Peter with contempt. "What
would a man be doin' at such places without money? And a b'y
that has to live in a garret an' can't afford candles an' wood, an
eats wid the nagurs in the cheap eatin'-houses, d'ye s'pose lie's
goin' to run to balls, even if he wanted to, which he don't."
Florian listened in some amazement and doubt.
"Do I understand you to say, Peter, that he is too poor to
buy candles, and takes his meals at poor restaurants?"
"Have ye seen him at the table in a month?" said Peter
grimly.
Florian admitted that he had not.
"Ye don't know as much about him as I thought," said he.
"He makes enough money, I think, to pay his board here, but no
more; an' he's that stiff an' correct he won't go to them pub.
lishers who'd pay him well, if they are a little less respectable
than Corcoran an' his kind. Then he supports a half-dozen poor
families. An' between them all he has to do without many
things an' eat poor food."
From this Peter rambled on into a lengthy description of
Paul's troubles with a view to exciting Florian's sympathy in
the poet's behalf, and the instantaneous presentation of more
brandy on his own; but Florian had learned quite enough for his
purposes and was not responsive.
"Divil a heart he has!" Peter went off muttering. "It's a
gizzard, an' Paul'll stay in the garret for all he cares."
There was a shade of self-reproach in Florian's thoughts that
night, and some humiliation. Why had he not looked a little
more closely into Paul's affairs, and where was his boasted pene.
tration, that he had to be told of the many motive-springs in his
friend's disposition? He now recalled the absence of Paul from
the regular meals, and the fact that he had never been invited to