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a busy law firm, one of the partners, Mr. Alleyne, angri-

ly orders the secretary to send Farrington to his office. Farting-

ton is a copy clerk in the firm,responsible for making copies

of legal documents by band,and he has failed to produce an

important document on time. Mr. Alleyne taunts Farrington and

says harshly that if he does not copy the material by closing

time his incompetence will be reported to the other partner.

This meeting angers Farrington,who mentally makes evening

plans to drink with his friends as a respite.Farrington returns to

his desk but is unable to focus on work. He skirts past the chief

clerk to sneak out to the local pub where he quickly drinks a

beer.

     Two clients are speaking with the chief clerk when Far.

rington returns to the office, making his absence apparent. The

clerk asks him to take a file to Mr. Alleyne, who is also with a

client. Farrington realizes that the needed file is incomplete be.

cause he has failed to copy two letters as requested. Hoping

that Mr. Alleyne will not notice, Farrington delivers the incom.

plete file and returns to his desk to work on his project. Again

unable to concentrate,Farrington dreams of hot drinks and

crowded pubs, only to realize, with increasing rage, that com.

pleting the task is impossible and that he has no hope of get-

ting an advance on his paycheck to fund his thirst. Meanwhile,

Mr. Alleyne,having noticed the missing letters,has come to

Farrington's desk with his client, the jovial Miss Delacour, and

started another abusive critique of Farrington's work. Farting.

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ton claims ignorance and wittily insults Mr. Alleyne to the a-

musement of Miss Delacour and his fellow clerks.

       Forced to apologize to Mr. Alleyne,Farrington leaves

work without completing his project and dreading the sure

backlash at the office. More determined than ever to go to the

pub, Farrington pawns his pocket watch for drinking money.At

his first stop he meets his friends Nosey Flynn,O'Halloran,

and Paddy Leonard, and tells them of his shining moment in-

sulting his boss. Another clerk from the office arrives and joins

them,repeating the story. Soon the men leave the pub,and O'

Halloran,Leonard,and Farrington move on to another place.

There Leonard introduces the men to an acrobat named

Weathers,who happily accepts the drinks the other men buy

for him. Farrington becomes irritated at the amount of money

he spends, but the men keep drinking and move to yet another

pub. Weathers meets the men there and Farrington begrudg-

ingly buys him another drink out of courtesy.Farrington's flus-

trations build as he flirts with an elegant woman sitting nearby

who ultimately ignores his advances. Leonard and O'Halloran

then convince Farrington to arm wrestle with Weathers,who

has been boasting about his strength to the men.After two at-

tempts, Farrington loses.

      Filled with rage and humiliation,Farrington travels home

to Shelbourne Road, a lower-middle-class area southeast of the

city center. Entering his dark house, he calls to his wife Ada

but is met by one of his five children, his son Tom. When

Tom informs him that Ada is at church, Farrington orders Tom

to light up the house and prepare dinner for him. He then real-,

izes that the house fire has been left to burn out, which means

his  dinner ill be long in coming. With his anger at boiling