expression of her face changed and
a look of pleasure passed into it; he could see that the girl liked
him, and he hastened to tell her that his landlady had told him about
the paper boats and the alder-trees. And Ellen began to speak about the
landlady, saying she was a very good, kind woman, and she wanted to
know if Ned were comfortable at the farm-house. But she seemed to have
some difficulty in speaking, and then, as if moved by some mysterious
influence, they walked across the room towards the window and sat under
the shadow of the red damask curtains. A gentle breeze was blowing and
the curtains filled with it and sank back with a mysterious rustle. And
beyond them the garden lay dark and huddled in the shadows of great
trees. He heard her say she was sorry that James, the landlady's son,
had gone to America, and then they spoke of the forty thousand that
were leaving Ireland every year. It was Ned who continued the
conversation, but he could see that what he said hardly entered her
ears at all. Yet she heard his voice in her heart, and he, too, heard
her voice in his heart, and several times she felt she could not go on
talking, and once she nearly lost consciousness and must have swayed a
little, for he put out his hand to save her.

They went into the garden and walked about in the dusk. He told her
about the war in Cuba and about the impulse which had brought him back
to Ireland, and his tale seemed to her the most momentous thing she had
ever heard. She listened to his first impressions about Tara, and every
moment it seemed to her that she was about to hear a great secret, a
secret that had been troubling her a long while; every moment she
expected to hear him speak it, and she almost cried when her father
came to ask Ned if he would play for them.

Ellen was not a musician, and another woman would have to accompany
him. He was tall and thin and his hands were manly. She could hardly
look at his hands without shuddering, so beautiful were they when they
played the violin; and that night music said something more to her than
it had ever said before. She heard again the sounds of birds and
insects, and she saw again the gloom of the trees, and she felt again
and more intensely the overpowering ecstasy, and she yielded herself
utterly and without knowing why. When he finished playing he came to
her and sat by her, and everything she said seemed to fall from her
lips involuntarily. She seemed to have lost her