sed]. Oh, only idle curiosity. I wanted to know
whether you found Ireland--I mean the country part of Ireland, of
course--very small and backwardlike when you came back to it from
Rome and Oxford and all the great cities.

KEEGAN. When I went to those great cities I saw wonders I had
never seen in Ireland. But when I came back to Ireland I found
all the wonders there waiting for me. You see they had been there
all the time; but my eyes had never been opened to them. I did
not know what my own house was like, because I had never been
outside it.

NORA. D'ye think that's the same with everybody?

KEEGAN. With everybody who has eyes in his soul as well as in his
head.

NORA. But really and truly now, weren't the people rather
disappointing? I should think the girls must have seemed rather
coarse and dowdy after the foreign princesses and people? But I
suppose a priest wouldn't notice that.

KEEGAN. It's a priest's business to notice everything. I won't
tell you all I noticed about women; but I'll tell you this. The
more a man knows, and the farther he travels, the more likely he
is to marry a country girl afterwards.

NORA [blushing with delight]. You're joking, Mr Keegan: I'm sure
yar.

KEEGAN. My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest
joke in the world.

NORA [incredulous]. Galong with you!

KEEGAN [springing up actively]. Shall we go down to the road and
meet the car? [She gives him her hand and he helps her up]. Patsy
Farrell told me you were expecting young Doyle.

NORA [tossing her chin up at once]. Oh, I'm not expecting him
particularly. It's a wonder he's come back at all. After staying
away eighteen years he can harly expect us to be very anxious to
see him, can he now?

KEEGAN. Well, not anxious perhaps; but you will be curious to see
how much he has changed in all these years.

NORA [with a sudden bitter flush]. I suppose that's all that
brings him back to look at us, just to see how much WE'VE
changed. Well, he can wait and see me be candlelight: I didn't
come out to meet him: I'm going to walk to the Round Tower [going
west across the hill].

KEEGAN. You couldn't do better this fine evening. [Gravely] I'll
tell him where you've gone. [She turns as if to forbid him; but
the deep understanding in his eyes makes that impossible; and she
only looks at him earnestly and goes. He watches her disappear on
the other side of the hill; then says] Aye, he's come to torment
you; and you