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He was silent for nearly a minute, while his mind rummaged among old memories and his eye glowed. He bit upon the pipe-stem and charged into his tale.

“Eyah! They was great times, I’m ould now; me hide’s wore off in patches; sinthrygo has disconceited me, an’ I’m a married man tu. But I’ve had my day–I’ve had my day, an’ nothin’ can take away the taste av that! Oh my time past, whin I put me fut through ivry livin’ wan av the Tin Commandmints between Revelly and Lights Out, blew the froth off a pewter, wiped me moustache wid the back av me hand, an’ slept on ut all as quiet as a little child! But ut’s over–ut’s over, an’ ’twill niver come back to me; not though I prayed for a week av Sundays. Was there any wan in the Ould Rig’mint to touch Corp’ril Terence Mulvaney whin that same was turned out for sedukshin? I niver met him. Ivry woman that was not a witch was worth the runnin’ afther in those days, an’ ivry man was my dearest frind or–I had stripped to him an’ we knew which was the betther av the tu.

“Whin I was Corp’ril I wud not ha’ changed wid the Colonel–no, nor yet the Commandher-in-Chief. I wud be a Sargint. There was nothin’ I wud not be! Mother av Hivin, look at me! Fwhat am I now?

“We was quartered in a big cantonmint–’tis no manner av use namin’ names, for ut might give the barricks disrepitation–an’ I was the Imperor av the Earth to my own mind, an’ wan or tu women thought the same. Small blame to thim. Afther we had lain there a year, Bragin, the Color Sargint av E Comp’ny, wint an’ took a wife that was lady’s maid to some big lady in the Station. She’s dead now is Annie Bragin–died in child-bed at Kirpa Tal, or ut may ha’ been Almorah–seven–nine years gone, an’ Bragin he married agin. But she was a pretty woman whin Bragin inthrojuced her to cantonmint society. She had eyes like the brown av a buttherfly’s wing whin the sun catches ut, an’ a waist no thicker than my arm, an’ a little sof button av a mouth I would ha’ gone through all Asia bristlin’ wid bay’nits to get the kiss av. An’ her hair was as long as the tail av the Colonel’s charger–forgive me mentionin’ that blunderin’ baste in the same mouthful with Annie Bragin–but ’twas all shpun gold, an’ time was when ut was more than di’monds to me. There was niver pretty woman yet, an’ I’ve had thruck wid a few, cud open the door to Annie Bragin.

“‘Twas in the Cath’lic Chapel I saw her first, me oi roiling round as usual to see fwhat was to be seen, ‘You’re too good for Bragin, my love,’ thinks I to mesilf, ‘but that’s a mistake I can put straight, or my name is not Terence Mulvaney.’

“Now take my wurrd for ut, you Orth’ris there an’ Learoyd, an’ kape out av the Married Quarters–as I did not. No good iver comes av ut, an’ there’s always the chance av your bein’ found wid your face in the dirt, a long picket in the back av your head, an’ your hands playing the fifes on the tread av another man’s doorstep.

“Twas so we found O’Hara, he that Rafferty killed six years gone, when he wint to his death wid his hair oiled, whistlin’ Larry O’Rourke betune his teeth. Kape out av the Married Quarters, I say, as I did not, ‘Tis onwholesim, ’tis dangerous, an’ ’tis ivrything else that’s bad, but–O my sowl, ’tis swate while ut lasts!

“I was always hangin’ about there whin I was off duty an’ Bragin wasn’t, but niver a sweet word beyon’ ordinar’ did I get from Annie Bragin. ”Tis the pervarsity av the sect,’ sez I to mesilf, an’ gave my cap another cock on my head an’ straightened my back–’twas the back av a Dhrum Major in those days–an’ wint off as tho’ I did not care, wid all the women in the Married Quarters laughin’. I was pershuaded–most bhoys are, I’m thinkin’–that no women born av woman cud stand against me av I hild up my little finger. I had reason fer thinkin’ that way–till I met Annie Bragin.