Waysiders
O'Kelly, Seumas, 1881-1918
English
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Below is a summary of Waysiders
[Illustration: Festus Clasby]
The name stood out in chaste white letters from the blackbackground of the signboard. Indeed the name might be said tospring from the landscape, for this shop jumped from its ruralsetting with an air of aggression. It was a commercial oasis on adesert of grass. It proclaimed the clash of two civilisations.There were the hills, pitched round it like the galleries of somevast amphitheatre, rising tier upon tier to the blue of the sky.There was the yellow road, fantastic in its frolic down to thevalley. And at one of its wayward curves was the shop, the shop ofFestus Clasby, a foreign growth upon the landscape, its one longwindow crowded with sombre merchandise, its air that ofestablished, cob-web respectability.
Inside the shop was Festus Clasby himself, like some greatmasterpiece in its ancient frame. He was the product of the twocivilisations, a charioteer who drove the two fiery steeds ofAgricolo and Trade with a hand of authority. He was a man of landsand of shops. His dark face, framed in darker hair and beard, wasmassive and square. Behind the luxurious growth of hair the richblood glowed on the clear skin. His chest had breadth, his limbswere great, showing girth at the hips and power at the calves. Hiseyes were large and dark, smouldering in soft velvety tones. Thenose was long, the nostrils expressive of a certain animalism, themouth looked eloquent. His voice was low, of an agreeable evenquality, floating over the boxes and barrels of his shop like achant. His words never jarred, his views were vaguely comforting,based on accepted conventions, expressed in round, soft, lullingplatitudes. His manner was serious, his movements deliberate, thegreat bulk of the shoulders looming up in unconscious but dramaticposes in the curiously uneven lighting of the shop. His hands gavethe impression of slowness and a moderate skill; they could make upa parcel on the counter without leaving ugly laps; they couldperform a minor surgical operation on a beast in the fields withoutdegenerating to butchery; and they would always be doing something,even if it were only rolling up a ball of twine. His clothes exudeda faint suggestion of cinnamon, nutmeg and caraway seeds.
Festus Clasby would have looked the part in any notoriousposition in life; his shoulders would have carried with dignity thegolden chain of office of the mayoralty of a considerable city; hewould have looked a perfect chairman of a jury at a Coroner'sinquest; as the Head of a pious Guild in a church he might almostbe confused with the figures of the stained glass windows; marching
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