Allen, in need Of the paperwork for the a case,and has been looking for him. Barrington delivers the riles, hoping that his boss won’t notice that the last two letters are not complete. After Barrington returns to his desk, knowing full and well he will have missed his deadline because he will not be able to complete copying the contract on time, he begins dreaming of spending the night pub crawling, then suddenly interrupted by a very upset Mr..
Allen who yells at him in about the missing letters screams “do you think me an utter fool? ” when Barrington gives him a pertinent response, Mr.. Allen demands an apology which embarrasses Barrington and makes him more miserable. Oater on, Barrington hopes to get the company cashier alone so he can borrow money against his wages, but there’s no hope and the only way he can get money for his carouse is to pawn his watch, tort which he gets six shillings.
He meets his buddies Davys Byrne, O’ Halogen and payday Leonard and falsely tells them that he was able to trick his boss, They buy rounds of drinks and Higgins comes in and adds glorious embellishments to Apparition’s run-in with Allen. After numerous drinks, they take off for the Scotch House where they meet young Weathers, an acrobat and an artist. They intention to drink and after this bar closes they continue on to Mulligan’s, where a woman catches Affirmation’s eye then rebuffs him.
Then he becomes surly and starts bemoaning his sorry, impoverished life. He thinks of how he has spent his money on drinks and how young Weathers drinks more than he buys. The night continues in typical drunken raucousness and arm wrestling until Barrington, angry now, accuses Weathers of cheating when he is defeated Affirmation’s anger continues to mount on his way home: “a very sullen man stood on the corner of O’Connell Bridge,” and once again he regrets pawning his watch, especially nice (he thinks) he isn’t even drunk .
His reputation as a mighty man has been lost to young Weathers: “he had lost his reputation as a strong man, having been defeated twice by a mere boy” and his “heart swelled with fury”. When he enters his home he finds a cold dinner. Tom, one of his five children, tells him his wife is at church and Barrington orders the boy to heat his dinner. Little Tom obeys but Barrington notices the fire has gone out, chases the boy and beats him brutally with a stick despite the child’s pleading cries tort mercy: “Don’t beat me, Pa!
I’ll say a Hail Mary for you pa. If you don’t beat me” The clearest example fifths theme is in “Counterparts,” where the main character, Barrington, can think to nothing other than how to get drunk. He jeopardizes his career and spends all his money on alcohol, briefly feeling like an important man while telling stories to his friends in the bar. However, the effects of heavy drinking catch up with him later in the evening, when he is out of money but is not drunk enough to forget his problems. He goes home and takes his disappointment by beating.
