And now when it was true, it was hard to credit. Within two weeks the
ship would swing to port around Donegal, and they would enter the bay
they had entered seven years ago, seven years and a month ago, to be
exact. He wondered whether it would be a foggy morning, or a great
golden afternoon. It was a pity it had to be on board a steamship,
though. He would liefer have luffed in on board a boat of his own, a
great suit of snowy canvas drawing joyously the Irish wind.

Section 2

Upstairs he could hear and distinguish the feet in the nursery. There
was the patter of little Alan's feet, and the stumble of Robin Beg's.
There was the shuffle of the nurse-maid, and the firm light tread of
Granya. Soon she would come down, after the children were safely to bed,
and little Alan's prayers were heard. And they would go out to dinner in
New York for the last time. It was a little pang to leave New York....
Ah, but Antrim!

He picked up his paper and read while waiting.... It was queer how he
could hardly focus his attention on it, impatient for her as a schoolboy
for his first love.... Always when she entered a room came beauty....
Well, she would come.... The type took form beneath his eyes.... The
races at Sheepshead Bay: Tom Martin had captured the Twin City
Handicap.... In Ireland they would go to the Curragh and Baldoyle to
see the horses, and the Dublin horse-show, and the hunts on a frosty
morning.... What was this? Heavy bets laid that Cleveland would be next
President. The Irish wouldn't like that. They were all for Blaine. It
was only the other night that Mrs. Delia Parnell, Parnell's mother, had
attended the great Irish rally in the Academy of Music.... That was a
mistake, mixing up Irish politics with American statesmanship. There
would be folk to resent that, and rightly, too.... Too much talk of
dynamite, and that horrible thing in Phoenix Park.... What an
involved, emotional affair all this Irish matter was!... To understand
Ireland one must understand Irishmen, that either hatred or love rule
them.... Parnell, though, looked hopeful. No emotion, all brains and
will.... He could not be side-tracked by preferment, or religion, or
love for women. There was a man whose head was firm on his shoulders; he
would never be wrecked.... Ah, here was something Granya would be glad
to hear: Margaret Mather got a splendid reception in Pittsburg with her
_Lady Macbeth_.... Whew! Cholera at Naples. That was serious! Not an