So Late in the Day: Stories of Men and Women

by Claire Keegan

so much of life carrying smoothly on, despite the tangle of human upsets and the knowledge of how everything must end.

‘Do you think I’m made of money?’ he’d said – and immediately felt the long shadow of his father’s language crossing over his life, on what should have been a good day, if not one of his happiest. She had stared at him and was about to turn and walk, but Cathal backed down, and had apologised. ‘Please wait,’ he’d pleaded. ‘I didn’t mean it. I just didn’t want to be taken advantage of, is all. I got it all wrong.’