![]() ![]() ![]() We waited to see wh ether she would remain or go in and, if she remained, we left our shadow and walked u p to Mangan's steps resignedly. Or if Mangan's sister came out on the doorstep to call her brother in to his tea we watched her from our shadow peer up and down the street. If my uncle was seen turning the corner we hid in the shado w until we had seen him safely ho used. When we returned to the street light from the kitchen windows had filled the areas. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the c ottages, to the back do ors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness. The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. ![]() ![]() When we met in the street the houses had grown sombre. When the short days of winter came dusk fell before we had well eaten our dinners. He had been a very charitable priest in his will he had left all hi s money to institutions and the furniture of his house to his sister. The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes under one of which I found the late tenant's rusty bicycle-pump. I liked the last best because its leaves were yellow. ![]()
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