"Mr. Roderick O'Byrne," I exclaimed, "Nature is singing a perfect hymn for your home-coming!"
"My heart is singing too," he replied. "All I love are here before me."
When we had cordially shaken hands, I said to him:
"Now be very practical and prosaic. Come in and have something to eat."
"Oh, I couldn't!" he cried. "Let us go at once to them."
I saw his eyes wandering round in search of Winifred.
"Control your impatience just a little while longer," I observed, "and take a sensible meal."
"More mystifications, more delays, O woman of many mysteries!"
"Only one," I explained. "I want you and Winifred to meet in the Dargle; though she will probably think you have been evolved from the ground by one of her favorite fairies."
He laughed.