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Rasik introduces: The story begins with Maria, at tea with the ladies at the Lamplight Laundry, looking forward to her evening out with the Donnelly family on Hallow Eve, 31st October. The kitchen is "spick and span" and "the cook said you could see yourself in the big copper boilers. On the side table were four very big barmbracks. I had a hard time figuring out what these are. No dictionary I have has the word in it. It is a bread with alight mixture of cornmeal, with raisins, eaten at other times too, but on Hallow Eve a ceremonial requirement even in the poorest families . "The barmbracks seemed uncut but if you went closer you would see that they had been cut into long thick even slices… Maria had cut them herself." The next paragraph describes Maria as "a very, very small person indeed but she had a very long nose and a very long chin." She is considered to be peace-maker at the laundry, succeeding in making peace among the women who quarelled over their tubs. Everyone was so fond of Maria. She was hoping to get away by seven. "From Ballsbridge to the Pillar, twenty minute; from Pillar to Drumcondra, twenty minutes, and twenty minutes to buy the things. She would be there before eight." (More about this topography later). She has two half crowns in the purse given to her by Joe five years before. She would have five shillings clear after paying her tramfare, to buy the plumcake for Joe and his wife and a bag of cakes for the children. She had nursed Joe and Alphy, who were brothers but had now had fallen out as adults. Joe used to say "Mamma is mamma but Maria is my proper mother." The boys had got her the position in the Dublin by Lamplight laundry after the break-up at home. She liked her position in the laundry and had revised her opinion of Protestants, who, she now thought, were very nice people. She had her plants in the conservatory, and although she did not like the tracks on the walls, she thought the matron was a nice person to deal with, so genteel. When the ladies of the laundry came in for tea, Maria superintended the distribution of the barmbracks and saw that ever woman got her four slices. Lizzie Fleming said Maria was sure to get the ring and "Maria had to ,laugh and say she didn't want ring or man either; and when she laughed her grey-green eyes sparkled with disappointed shyness and the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin. That is a phrase that will recur several times in the text. Introduction continues on next page! |
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