midnight
When once the car departs , comparative quiet reigns in and about the house until the passing bicyclers appear for luncheon or tea , when Oonah picks up the napkins that we have rolled into wads and flung under the dining-table , and spreads them on tea-trays , as appetising details for the weary traveller . There would naturally be more time for housework if so large a portion of the day were not spent in pleasant interchange of thought and speech . I can well understand Mrs. Colquhoun 's objections to the housing of the Dublin poor in tenements , -- even in those of a better kind than the present horrible examples ; for wherever they are huddled together in any numbers they will devote most of their time to conversation . To them talking is more attractive than eating ; it even adds a new joy to drinking ; and if I may judge from the groups I have seen gossiping over a turf fire till midnight , it is preferable to sleeping . But do not suppose they will bubble over with joke and repartee , with racy anecdote , to every casual newcomer . The tourist who looks upon the Irishman as the merry-andrew of the English-speaking world , and who expects every jarvey he meets to be as whimsical as Mickey Free , will be disappointed . I have strong suspicions that ragged , jovial Mickey Free himself , delicious as he is , was created by Lever to satisfy the Anglo-Saxon idea of the low-comedy Irishman .