Page 229 - dubliners

me.’
‘A beautiful, pure, sweet, mellow English tenor,’ said
Aunt Kate with enthusiasm.
Gabriel having finished, the huge pudding was trans-
ferred to the table. The clatter of forks and spoons began
again. Gabriel’s wife served out spoonfuls of the pudding
and passed the plates down the table. Midway down they
were held up by Mary Jane, who replenished them with
raspberry or orange jelly or with blancmange and jam. The
pudding was of Aunt Julia’s making and she received prais-
es for it from all quarters She herself said that it was not
quite brown enough.
‘Well, I hope, Miss Morkan,’ said Mr. Browne, ‘that I’m
brown enough for you because, you know, I’m all brown.’
All the gentlemen, except Gabriel, ate some of the pud-
ding out of compliment to Aunt Julia. As Gabriel never ate
sweets the celery had been left for him. Freddy Malins also
took a stalk of celery and ate it with his pudding. He had
been told that celery was a capital thing for the blood and
he was just then under doctor’s care. Mrs. Malins, who had
been silent all through the supper, said that her son was go-
ing down to Mount Melleray in a week or so. The table then
spoke of Mount Melleray, how bracing the air was down
there, how hospitable the monks were and how they never
asked for a penny-piece from their guests.
‘And do you mean to say,’ asked Mr. Browne incredu-
lously, ‘that a chap can go down there and put up there as if
it were a hotel and live on the fat of the land and then come
away without paying anything?’

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