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“In his imagination he beheld the pair of lovers walking along some dark road; he heard Corley’s voice in deep energetic gallantries and saw again the leer of the young woman’s mouth. This vision made him feel keenly his own poverty of purse and spirit.”
While it is never explicitly stated, it is implied that Lenehan is jealous of Corley because he is a ladies’ man and Lenehan is not. Instead of pursuing a date of his own, Lenehan’s aversion to humanity causes him to live vicariously through his friend. His behavior here is its own form of escapism because he is quelling his loneliness with his own imagination. However, his fantasy is not enough and he ultimately crashes back down to earth and feels ashamed.
“He was tired of knocking about, of pulling the devil by the tail, of shifts and intrigues. He would be thirty-one in November. Would he never get a good job? Would he never have a home of his own? He thought how pleasant it would be to have a warm fire to sit by and a good dinner to sit down to. He had walked the streets long enough with friends and with girls. He knew what those friends were worth: he knew the girls too. Experience had embittered his heart against the world.”
In perhaps the most honest section of the story, Lenehan explicitly acknowledges that he wants to escape from his current lifestyle. He does not want to be a “leech” anymore, he does not want to go along with Corley’s money-making schemes. He does not want to earn a living from horse race gambling. He wants a comfortable and domestic life. However, the text implies that this escape will always be just out of reach because Lenehan does not have it in him to change the trajectory of his life.
