e snow----'

"'And always Father Quinn, wasted and worn with care for the living and
prayer for the dead, bidding me rise up on my two feet and go to the lad
I loved. Love, was it? God forgive me, the way I misnamed it then.

"'Well, then, in the dusk of one day I went with him, me leaning for
weakness on his tired arm. Out of every house peered a face, but there
was no lad begging a smile of me and no green envy at all in the glance
of the girls. When we were well past the whole of them I went down on my
two knees in the dirt of the road, the way I'd be praying at a shrine
itself, for there was a white moon rising in the soul of me and I began
to see clear. "Mary, Mother," I said, "God forbid the likes of me to be
driving a bargain with yourself, but give me the one thing only and I'll
never pester your ear again all the days of my life. Here in the dust I
make a heap of all my sins and vanities,--the toss of my head and the
tilt of my chin, the love-looks of the lads and the black hate of the
girls, and I'll burn them for a sacrifice the way the heathen would be
doing and go joyful on my way with the ashes in my mouth! Leave the
children to run from me, me, the one-time wonder of the weeping west;
leave the girls to make mock of my face; only Mary, Mother, for the sake
of the joy he had in me, let Larry Kinsella only of all the world be
seeing me still with the eyes of love, and see me fair!"

"'Then was a glad cry sounding and the pinched face of Father Quinn
shining like an altar and it lighted up for Easter itself. "Glory be to
God," he cried out in a great voice. "Now let you make haste to your
lad, for I heard the rustle of wings on that prayer will carry it high!"

"'When Larry Kinsella heard the sound of my foot on his step he leapt
up. Wirra ... down all the years I can hear the wild joy of him
still---- "Core of my heart, have you come? Alannah!--_With your lips
and cheeks the rose_----"

"'I opened my mouth to cry shame on him, mocking my face, but then the
peace of God came down on me like a deep rain on a parched field, and I
knew what way it would be with the two of us all the long days of this
world. Larry Kinsella was blind.'"

Michael had been speaking more and more slowly and softly and he did not
move for many moments after he had finished his tale. Then he stealthily
rose and bent over young Randal, and tiptoed away. "Asleep," his lips
barely formed the word, and he motioned Jane to follow him.