'And not married?'

'No.'

'Well then,' he said, 'you're a damn lucky fellow to be travelling
the world with no one to impede you.'

Then he went on to discuss the expenses of travelling.

'You'll likely be paying twenty pounds for this trip,' he said, '
with getting your lodging and buying your tickets, till you're back
in the city of Dublin?'

I told him my expenses were not so heavy.

'Maybe you don't drink so,' said his wife, who was near us, 'and
that way your living wouldn't be so costly at all.'

An interruption was made by a stop at a small station and the
entrance of a ragged ballad-singer, who sang a long ballad about the
sorrows of mothers who see all their children going away from them
to America.

Further on, when the carriage was much emptier, a middle-aged man
got in, and we began discussing the fishing season, Aran fishing,
hookers, nobbies, and mackerel. I could see, while we were talking,
that he, in his turn, was examining me with curiosity. At last he
seemed satisfied.