ushed deeply, and turning
towards the right went rapidly in the direction of the Phoenix Park.
She told herself that she was not going in there, but would merely
take a walk by the river, cross at Island Bridge, and go back on the
opposite side of the Liffey to the Green. But when she saw the broad
sunlit road gleaming through the big gates she thought she would go
for a little way up there to look at the flowers behind the railings.
As she went in a great figure came from behind the newspaper kiosk
outside the gates and followed Mary up the road. When she paused to
look at the flowers the great figure halted also, and when she went on
again it followed. Mary walked past the Gough Statue and turned away
into the fields and the trees, and here the figure lengthened its
stride. In the middle of the field a big shadow bobbed past her
shoulder, and she walked on holding her breath and watching the shadow
growing by queer forward jerks. In a moment the dull beat of feet on
grass banished all thought of the shadow, and then there came a
cheerful voice in her ears, and the big policeman was standing by her
side. For a few moments they were stationary, making salutation and
excuse and explanation, and then they walked slowly on through the
sunshine. Wherever there was a bush there were flowers on it. Every
tree was thronged with birds that sang shrilly and sweetly in sudden
thrills and clear sustained melodies, but in the open spaces the
silence was more wonderful; there was no bird note to come between
Mary and that deep voice, no shadow of a tree to swallow up their own
two shadows; and the sunlight was so mildly warm, the air was so sweet
and pure, and the little wind that hushed by from the mountains was a
tender and a peaceful wind.

XIII

After that day Mary Makebelieve met her new friend frequently.
Somehow, wherever she went, he was not far away; he seemed to spring
out of space--one moment she was alone watching the people passing and
the hurrying cars and the thronged and splendid shop windows, and then
a big voice was booming down to her and a big form was pacing
deliberately by her side. Twice he took her into a restaurant and gave
her lunch. She had never been in a restaurant before, and it seemed to
her like a place in fairyland. The semi-darkness of the retired rooms
faintly colored by tiny electric lights, the beautifully clean tables
and the strange foods, the neatly dressed waitresses with quick, def