ning to its danger, and Ned began to think that all
its remaining energies were being concentrated in an effort to escape.

Long years ago in America he had watched a small snake trying to
swallow a frog. The snake sucked down the frog, and the frog seemed to
acquiesce until the half of his body was down the snake's gullet, and
then the frog bestirred himself and succeeded in escaping. The snake
rested awhile and the next day he renewed his attack. At last the day
came when the weary frog delayed too long and Ned watched him disappear
down the snake's gullet.

A good deal of Ireland was down the clerical throat and all would go
down if Ireland did not bestir herself. Ireland was weakening daily,
and every part of her that disappeared made it more difficult for her
to extricate herself. Ned remembered that life and death, sickness and
health, success and failure, are merely questions of balance. A nation
is successful when its forces are at balance, and nations rise and fall
because the centre of gravity shifts. A single Spaniard is as good as a
single German, but the centre of gravity is in Spain no longer.

Ned did not look upon religion as an evil; he knew religion to be
necessary; but it seemed to him that the balance had been tilted in
Ireland.

He threw himself more and more into the education of the people, and
politics became his chief interest. At last he had begun to live for
his idea, and long absence from home and long drives on outside cars
and evenings spent in inn parlours were accepted without murmurings;
these discomforts were no longer perceived, whereas when he and Ellen
used to sit over the fire composing speeches together, the thought of
them filled him with despair. He used to complain that Ellen was always
sending him away from home and to hard mutton shops and dirty bedrooms.
He reminded her no more of these discomforts. He came back and spent a
day or two with her, and went away again. She had begun to notice that
he did not seem sorry to leave, but she did not reproach him, because
he said he was working for Ireland. He tried to think the explanation a
sufficient one. Did he not love his home? His home was a delightful
relaxation. The moment he crossed the threshold his ideas went behind
him and in the hour before dinner he played with his child and talked
to Ellen about the house and the garden and the things he thought she
was most interested in. After dinner she read or sewed and he spent