The Real Charlotte

THE REAL CHARLOTTE
STORIES AND SKETCHES OF IRISH LIFE.
By E. Œ. Somerville and Martin Ross.
SOME EXPERIENCES OF AN IRISH R.M. With 31 Illustrations by E. Œ. Somerville. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. FURTHER EXPERIENCES OF AN IRISH R.M. With 35 Illustrations by E. Œ. Somerville. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. IN MR. KNOX’S COUNTRY. With 8 Illustrations in Colour by E. Œ. Somerville. Crown 8vo, 6s. ALL ON THE IRISH SHORE. With 10 Illustrations by E. Œ. Somerville. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. SOME IRISH YESTERDAYS. With 51 Illustrations by E. Œ. Somerville. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. AN IRISH COUSIN. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. THE REAL CHARLOTTE. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. THE SILVER FOX. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
BY E. Œ. SOMERVILLE & MARTIN ROSS NEW IMPRESSION LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 1915
First published by Ward & Downey, in 3 volumes in 1894, and in one volume in 1895. Transferred to Longmans, Green & Co. and reprinted by them in November, 1900, December, 1901, and November, 1903. Reissued in uniform edition October, 1910; reprinted May, 1911, June, 1915.
An August Sunday afternoon in the north side of Dublin. Epitome of all that is hot, arid, and empty. Tall brick houses, browbeating each other in gloomy respectability across the white streets; broad pavements, promenaded mainly by the nomadic cat; stifling squares, wherein the infant of unfashionable parentage is taken for the daily baking that is its substitute for the breezes and the press of perambulators on the Bray Esplanade or the Kingston pier. Few towns are duller out of the season than Dublin, but the dullness of its north side neither waxes nor wanes; it is immutable, unchangeable, fixed as the stars. So at least it appears to the observer whose impressions are only eye-deep, and are derived from the emptiness of the streets, the unvarying dirt of the window panes, and the almost forgotten type of ugliness of the window curtains.