Aodh put on a pair of round smoked glass spectacles against the glare of the sun. He adjusted the hang of his samples case on his shoulder, Aodh took his short stemmed clay pipe from a waistcoat pocket and stuck it in his mouth and lit it with a match.
He ambles down the street, as he walked a new melody formed in his mind. His long fingers of his right hand tap in on the sample case as he walked.
The few other people abroad on Hollow street ignore him, and each other. It was not the kind of place one made chit chat with your neighbours.
That suited Aodh, he didn't like folks knowing his business, that would be dangerous.
He could feel the heat rising from the cobble stones through the worn soles of his old work boots.
This morning he was dressed as Aodh the craftsman; collarless linen shirt with sleeves rolled to the elbow, under a faded but clean green waistcoat and tan trousers which stopped just before his boots as they were slightly too short for his long legs.
While it lacked his normal flash, the outfit had its advantages, to most folks he was invisible, just another wick labourer.
Admittedly his wild hair made he somewhat distinctive, that however was easily fixed. As he drew the end of Hollow street Aodh pulled the batter cap from his back pocket, stuffed his hair into it and set the cap at a jaunty angle. As he caught sight of himself in a partly boarded shop window he muttered softly, with a sardonic grin.
'Tah da, an' for my next trick.'
Aodh cut down an alleyway, glanced over his shoulder to see if he was being followed, didn't seem to be. He stepped from the other end of the twisting alleys, out into the clean streets of Painted Ladies.
Still with the same untroubled ambling stride walked down the street. Aodh smiled and nodded politely to people he passed, and got smiles, nods and good mornings in return. Still the Dives, but so different to Hollow street, checking shop signs he stopped next door Woven Delights.
Aodh paused to check his appearance in the window, knocked the ash from his pipe on his boot heel and returned it to his waistcoat pocket. Then with a friendly smile in place he pushed open the door of the well appointed shop and entered.