more Irish-looking. Perhaps it would be better to insert his mother’s name before the surname: Thomas Malone Chandler, or better still: T. Malone Chandler. He would speak to Gallaher about it.
He pursued his revery so ardently that he passed his street and had to turn back. As he came near Corless’s his former agitation began to overmaster him and he halted before the door in indecision. Finally he opened the door and entered.
The light and noise of the bar held him at the doorway for a few moments. He looked about him, but his sight was confused by the shining of many red and green wine-glasses. The bar seemed to him to be full of people and he felt that the people were observing him curiously. He glanced quickly to right and left (frowning slightly to make his errand appear serious), but when his sight cleared a little he saw that nobody had turned to look at him: and there, sure enough, was Ignatius Gallaher leaning with his back against the counter and his feet planted far apart.
—Hallo, Tommy, old hero, here you are! What is it to be? What will you have? I’m taking whisky: better stuff than we get across the water. Soda? Lithia? No mineral? I’m the same. Spoils the flavour… Here, garçon, bring us two halves of malt whisky, like a good fellow… Well, and how have you been pulling along since I saw you last? Dear God, how old we’re getting! Do you see any signs of ageing in me—eh, what? A little grey and thin on the top—what?
Ignatius Gallaher took off his hat and displayed a large closely cropped head. His face was heavy, pale and clean-shaven. His eyes, which were of bluish slate-colour, relieved his unhealthy pallor and shone out plainly above the vivid orange tie he wore. Between these rival features the lips appeared very long and shapeless and colourless. He bent his head and felt with two sympathetic fingers the thin hair at the crown. Little Chandler shook his head as a denial. Ignatius Gallaher put on his hat again.
—It pulls you down, he said. Press life. Always hurry and scurry, looking for copy and sometimes not finding it: and then always to have something new in your stuff. Damn proofs and printers, I say, for a few days. I’m deuced glad, I can tell you, to get back to the old country. Does a fellow good, a bit of a holiday. I feel a ton better since I landed again in dear dirty Dublin… Here you are, Tommy. Water? Say when.
Little Chandler allowed his whisky to be very much diluted.
—You don’t know what’s good for you, my boy, said Ignatius Gallaher. I drink mine neat.
—I drink very little as a rule, said Little Chandler modestly. An odd half-one or so when I meet any of the old crowd: that’s all.
—Ah, well, said Ignatius Gallaher cheerfully, here’s to us and to old times and old acquaintance.
They clinked glasses and drank the toast.
—I met some of the old gang to-day, said Ignatius Gallaher. O’Hara seems to be in a bad way. What’s he doing?
—Nothing, said Little Chandler. He’s gone to the dogs.
—But Hogan has a good sit, hasn’t he?
—Yes, he’s in the Land Commission.
—I met him one night in London and he seemed to be very flush… Poor O’Hara! Boose, I suppose?
—Other things too, said Little Chandler shortly.
Ignatius Gallaher laughed.
—Tommy, he said, I see you haven’t changed an atom. You’re the very same serious person that used to lecture me on Sunday mornings when I had a sore head and a fur on my tongue. You’d want to knock about a bit in the world. Have you never been anywhere, even for a trip?
—I’ve been to the Isle of Man, said Little Chandler.
Ignatius Gallaher laughed.
—The Isle of Man! he said. Go to London or Paris: Paris, for choice. That’d do you good.
—Have you seen Paris?
—I should think I have! I’ve knocked about there a little.
—And is it really so beautiful as they say? asked Little Chandler.
He sipped a little of his drink while Ignatius Gallaher finished his boldly.
—Beautiful? said Ignatius Gallaher, pausing on the word and on the flavour of his drink. It’s not so beautiful, you know. Of course it is beautiful… But it’s the life of Paris: that’s the thing. Ah, there’s no city like Paris for gaiety, movement, excitement…
Little Chandler finished his whisky and, after some trouble, succeeded in catching the barman’s eye. He ordered the same again.
—I’ve been to the Moulin Rouge, Ignatius Gallaher continued when the barman had removed their glasses, and I’ve been to all the Bohemian cafés. Hot stuff! Not for a pious chap like you, Tommy.
Little Chandler said nothing until the barman returned with two glasses: then he touched his friend’s glass lightly and reciprocated the former toast. He was beginning to feel somewhat disillusioned. Gallaher’s accent and way of expressing himself did not please him. There was something vulgar in his friend which he had not observed before. But perhaps it was only the result of living in London amid the bustle and competition of the Press. The old personal charm was still there under this new gaudy manner. And after all, Gallaher had lived, he had seen the world. Little Chandler looked at his friend enviously.
—Everything in Paris is gay, said Ignatius Gallaher. They believe in enjoying life—and don’t you think they’re right? If you want to enjoy yourself properly you must go to Paris. And mind you, they’ve a great feeling for the Irish there. When they heard I was from Ireland they were ready to eat me, man.
Little Chandler took four or five sips from his glass.
—Tell me, he said, is it true that Paris is so… immoral as they say?
Ignatius Gallaher made a catholic gesture with his right arm.
—Every place is immoral, he said. Of course you do find spicy bits in Paris. Go to one of the students’ balls, for instance. That’s lively, if you like, when the cocottes begin to let themselves loose. You know what they are, I suppose?
—I’ve heard of them, said Little Chandler.
Ignatius Gallaher drank off his whisky and shook his head.
—Ah, he said, you may say what you like. There’s no woman like the Parisienne—for style, for go.
—Then it is an immoral city, said Little Chandler, with timid insistence. I mean, compared with London or Dublin?
—London! said Ignatius Gallaher. It’s six of one and half a dozen of the other. You ask Hogan, my boy. I showed him a bit about London when he was over there. He’d open your eye… I say, Tommy, don’t make punch of that whisky: liquor up.
—No, really.
—O, come on, another one won’t do you any harm. What is it? The same again, I suppose?
—Well… all right.
—François, the same again… Will you smoke, Tommy?
Ignatius Gallaher produced his cigar-case. The two friends lit their cigars and puffed at them in silence until their drinks were served.
—I’ll tell you my opinion, said Ignatius Gallaher, emerging after some time from the clouds of smoke in which he had taken refuge, it’s a rum world. Talk of immorality! I’ve heard of cases—what am I saying?—I’ve known them: cases of… immorality…
Ignatius Gallaher puffed thoughtfully at his cigar and then, in a calm historian’s tone, he proceeded to sketch for his friend some pictures of the corruption which was rife abroad. He summarised the vices of many capitals and seemed inclined to award the palm to Berlin. Some things he could not vouch for (his friends had told him) but of others he had had personal experience. He spared neither rank nor caste. He revealed