, unhappy eyes turned to him incessantly, as if, more than
ever, she was afraid that he would escape her, that he would go off God
knew where.

God knew where he was going, but Vera did not believe that he was going
to Ireland. He had talked about going to Ireland for years, and he had
never gone.

Stephen looked as if he did not see her; as if he did not even see
Michael very distinctly.

"I'm going," he said, "to Ireland on Monday week, the third of August. I
mayn't come back for long enough. I may not come back at all."

"That's the sort of thing he keeps on saying."

"I may not come back _at all_. So I want you to take over the _Review_
for me. Ellis and my secretary will show you how it stands. You'll know
what to do. I can trust you not to let it down."

"He doesn't mean what he says, Michael. He's only saying it to frighten
me. He's been holding it over me for years.

"_Say_ you'll have nothing to do with it. _Say_ you won't touch his old
_Review_."

"Could I go to Ireland for you?"

"You couldn't."

"Why not? What do you think you're going to do there?"

"I'm going to pull the Nationalists together, so that if there's civil
war in Ireland, the Irish will have a chance to win. Thank God for
Carson! He's given us the opportunity we wanted."

"Tell him he's not to go, Michael. He won't listen to me, but he'll mind
what you say."

"I want to go instead of him."

"You can't go instead of me. Nobody can go instead of me."

"I can go with you."

"You can't."

"Larry, if you take Michael to Ireland, Anthony and Frances will never
forgive you. _I_'ll never forgive you."

"I'm not taking Michael to Ireland, I'm telling you. There's no reason
why Michael should go to Ireland at all. It isn't _his_ country."

"You needn't rub _that_ in," said Michael.

"It isn't _yours_," said Vera. "Ireland doesn't want you. The
Nationalists don't want you. You said yourself they've turned you out of
Ireland. When you've lived in England all these years why should you go
back to a place that doesn't want you?"

"Because if Carson gets a free hand I see some chance of Ireland being a
free country."

Vera wailed and entreated. She said it showed how much he cared for her.
It showed that he was tired of her. Why couldn't he say so and have
done with it?

"It's not," she said, "as if you could really do anything. You're a
dreamer. Ireland has had enough of dreamers." And Stephen's eyes looked
over her head, into