A Distant Dream Read Free Page B

rich as him that lives in the Big House.”
    â€œNeeds must, dear Bessie,” said Finbar, who was large, with mutton chop sideburns. “You could say that of me. Perhaps people are saying that I fleece the poor by adding interest to the loans I give them, but that is what I do for a living: I’m a money lender.”
    â€œA bit of a difference, I would say,” said Clarence. “ Yer’ve been in business, father and son, for fifty years. People in Sligo know that yer ‘onest as the day.”
    â€œWell, you could say that I suppose, though I like to think I’m philanthropic. Anyway, let us make a toast to you both, to a pleasant journey and health and happiness in a new country.”
    He raised his glass, but Bessie’s face was mutinous.
    â€œA pleasant journey? Six months breathin’ in the smell of someone else’s sweat, livin’ cheek by jowel with a hundred others, listenin’ to other people’s carnal and dare I say it,
lavatorial
habits and yer want to wish us a pleasant journey? We will probably catch all sorts of diseases and end up in a watery grave.”
    â€œNonsense,” Clarence said. “I expect we’ll have to share with around about fifty and I’m sure there will be rules regardin’ such delicate things or the captain wouldn’t allow it. Besides, our fellow passengers will be artisans, people with a useful trade, not just any kind of riffraff. We’ll probably make lots of good friendships on our way.”
    â€œDid you see those people when we were on our journey over ‘ere?” Bessie was not going to be silenced by her husband’s attempt at diplomacy. “They were raggedy lookin’ people, with their scant possessions tied up in pieces of tarpaulin. They looked hollow-eyed and sickly and we’ll probably be expected to travel across the ocean with them.”
    By this time Bessie was beginning to work herself up into frenzy and started to point a jabbing finger towards Filbey.
    â€œI have been married to you for nigh on twenty year, yer’ve had the sweat off me brow and total obedience and I have never frittered away a penny of my housekeepin’ on
gewgaws
or frivolity, but what I do know Filbey, you can be a meanie of a man.”
    Filbey looked annoyed. He wasn’t going to have his wife show him up in front of his cousin and her husband.
    â€œI repeat Bessie, they will not be the kind of people who will be boardin’ the ship at Plymouth and while I’m on about it I’ll say it again. I am not payin’ out for a cabin: we’ll be needin’ every shillin’ when we get to Australia. Anyway, I think yer’ve said enough. Yer tired and yer’ve been gulpin’ that wine inside yer for the past couple of hours. When we’ve finished ‘ere, I suggest yer go to the room and get some shut eye, we’ll talk about this problem that yer seem to be ‘aving with our travel arrangements at another time.”
    Finbar, who had been listening to Bessie’s berating with surprise as his own wife had never raised her voice in anger since they had married twenty seven years before, felt he must interject on Bessie’s behalf, especially if it would help the situation.
    â€œI have to say that Bessie may have a point, Clarence. Some of these people are desperate and might have found their fare in a heinous fashion. Only the other day one of the grain stores was attacked, not that the mob got away with it as the British soldiers used their muskets, but even I have to carry a pistol and employ a guard to watch over my office in Ashbourne Street. Perhaps you and I could adjourn to my study later, smoke a pipe and think on the money that might be needed. Do you know how much it will cost you for a piece of land?”
    Clarence was appeased and Bessie, feeling a little ashamed at her outburst, finished their main course, which was a simple meal of roast lamb