and running up and down impeding him, and I
heard him say that he'd kick her if it wasn't that she was already
afflicted with blindness, the creature, and was Master Luke's dog. Now
that the silence had come we heard the rain driven in torrents against
the fanlight above the hall door.

At the moment the bolt fell I glanced behind me. My grandfather and
grandmother had come out into the hall: his arm was about her with a
protecting tenderness. There was a huddle of women-servants in all sorts
of undress, peeping from the back hall. In front of them, pushing them
back, was Maureen, her shoulders covered with a shawl upon which her
grey hair fell loosely.

The door burst open as soon as the bolt fell, and there was a rush of
wind and rain, and my candle went out. I saw a tall figure against the
stormy sky where the moon looked through the fast-driven clouds.

"God save us, what a night!" the new-comer said, entering and closing
the door behind him; and it took all his strength to close it.

"Bring lights, bring lights," I cried; and ran to my grandfather to
whisper to him to take my grandmother back into the room lest the sudden
joy should be too much for her. For I had seen old Dido leap on to the
stranger with a frantic joy, licking his face and hands; or I had known
that it was so without seeing it, for the hall was in darkness.

Some one brought a light, and I saw old Maureen leap at the tall
stranger as Dido had done and fling her arms about him, crying out for
her Ladyship, where was her Ladyship, for Master Luke had come home.

And after that everything was confusion for a few minutes, and I can
scarcely remember what happened in the babel of voices all crying out
and rejoicing at once.

"See that the horse is put up for the night and that the man has food
and shelter," I heard Uncle Luke say to Neil.

Then he, Uncle Luke, passed through the affectionate crowd that seemed
as if it would eat him with joy. I saw him go to his father and mother,
put an arm about each and pass within the little room, and there after
a moment I followed them.

They were all three standing on the hearthrug when I came in, and Uncle
Luke had one arm about his mother and the other thrown across his
father's neck.

"So this is little Bawn," he said, letting them go, and coming forward
to meet me. "So this is little Bawn."

I should have known his blue eyes and smile anywhere, I thought,
although his hair was as if dust had bee