CHAPTER XVIII.
Mr.Quinn carried on his struggle for nearly a year, although from the very first he might have recognised its hopelessness.

Time after time Hyacinth made his tour, and visited the shopkeepers who had once been his customers.

Occasionally he succeeded in obtaining orders, and a faint gleam of hope encouraged him, but he had no steady success.

Mr.
Quinn's original estimate of the situation was so far justified that after a while the religious animosity died out.

Shopkeepers even explained apologetically that they gave their orders to the Robeen convent for purely commercial reasons.
'Their goods are cheaper than yours, and that's the truth, Mr.
Conneally.' Hyacinth recognised that Mr.Quinn was being beaten at his own game.