, and he could
see the mists rising from the fields. He drew the curtains, and went and
sat down by the fire. There was a faint odour of burning turf in the
room, and as he watched the blue spirals of smoke curling up the
chimney, he remembered how he had trudged across Dartmoor once, and,
suddenly, unexpectedly had turned a corner of the road, and looked down
on a village in a hollow, and for a moment or two had imagined he was in
Ireland because of the smell of burning turf that came from the cottage
chimneys.

"We and they are one," he murmured to himself. "Our differences are but
two aspects of the same thing. Our blood and their blood, our earth and
their earth, mingled and made sacramental, shall be to the glory of
God!"

The door opened, and Hannah came in, carrying a lighted lamp.

"I just thought I'd bring it myself," she said. "I'd be afeard of my
life to let Minnie handle it. Dear knows, but she'd set herself on fire,
or mebbe the house, an' that'd be a nice thing, an' a new mistress
comin' to it. Will I put it down here by your elbow?"

"Anywhere, Hannah!" he answered.

"I'll just rest it here then, where it'll not be too strong for your
eyes. Yon ought to have the electric light put in the house. Major
Cairnduff has it in his house, an' it's not half the size of this
one.... Will I get you something?"

"No, thank you, Hannah!"

"A taste of some thin' to ate, mebbe, or a sup to drink?"

"Nothing, thank you!"

She went over to the fire. "Dear bless us," she said, "that's no sort of
a fire at all. What come over you, to let it get that low!"

"I didn't notice it, Hannah!"

"'Deed an' I don't suppose you did ... moidherin' your mind about one
thing an' another! There'll be a different story to tell when the
mistress comes home. Mark my words, there will! Dear, oh, dear, oh,
dear!..."

5

"I'm going to Belfast to-night, Hannah," he said when he had been at
home a few weeks. "I want to catch an early train to Dublin to-morrow."

"Yes," she said.

"When I come back, I shall bring my wife with me!"

"God bless us and save us," she exclaimed, "it'll be quare to think of
you with a wife, an' it on'y the other day since you were a child, an'
me skelpin' you for provokin' me. Well, I'll have the house ready for
yous both when you come!"

"Will you tell Matier to harness the horse...."

"I'll tell him this minute. That man's near demented mad at the thought
of you marryin'. 'Be the hokey O!' h