Consequently, although the townspeople of Athlone
cheered the regiment as it marched away, the country people held aloof
from it as it passed along the road. Scowling looks from the women greeted
it in the villages, while the men ostentatiously continued their work in
the fields without turning to cast a glance at them.
Terence was not posted to his father's company, but was in that of Captain
O'Driscol, although the lad himself would have preferred to be with
Captain O'Grady, with whom he was a great favourite. The latter was one of
the captains whose companies were unprovided with an ensign, and he had
asked the adjutant to let him have the lad instead of the ensign who was
to join at Cork.
"The matter has been settled the other way, O'Grady; in the colonel's
opinion he will be much better with O'Driscol, who is more likely to keep
him in order than you are."
O'Grady was one of the most original characters in the regiment. He was
rather under middle height, and had a smooth face, a guileless and
innocent expression, and a habit of opening his light-blue eyes as in
wonder. His hair was short, and stuck up aggressively; his brogue was the
strongest in the regiment; his blunders were innumerable, and his look of
amazement at the laughter they called forth was admirably feigned, save
that the twinkle of his eye induced a suspicion that he himself enjoyed
the joke as well as anyone.
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