“There’s more coming. Don’t you hear another band?”
“But the police could hold it up for a minute and let all these tramcars and automobiles across.”
“There’d be a fight,” said Powys. “They daren’t.”...
“And I suppose this sort of thing is going on in the north too?” asked Oswald after a pause.
“Oh! everywhere,” said Powys. “Orange or Green. But they’ve got more guns up north.”
“These people don’t really want Ireland a Nation and all the rest of it,” said Peter.
“Oh?” said Powys, staring at him.
“Well, look at them,” said Peter. “You can see by their faces. They’re just bored to death. I suppose most people are bored to death in Ireland. There’s nothing doing. England just holds them up, I suppose. And it’s an island—rather off the main line. There’s nothing to get people’s minds off these endless, dreary old quarrels. It’s all they have. But they’re bored by it....”
“And that’s why we talk nothing but anecdotes, Peter, eh?” Powys grinned.
“Well, you do talk a lot of anecdote,” said Peter, who hadn’t realized the sharpness of his host’s hearing.