"But it is very hard. He does not like strangers; and he seems to dislike people from America most of all."
"That is very unfortunate!" I said, laughing.
"Yes," assented Winifred. "Still, he might like some of them very well—if he knew them."
She said this with the utmost simplicity. I did not tell her that I was going to seek Niall's acquaintance; for I feared she might warn him and he might disappear, as was his wont from time to time, or take other means of preventing me from carrying out my purpose. I told her, instead, that I must be going; that I had had a most delightful day and was charmed with her castle and her legends.
"How grand it must have been when it was a real castle," she said; "and when there was an abbey near by, with a church, and the monks singing! It was one of the race who founded that abbey, in thanksgiving for having been saved from great danger."
"Ah, those were the days of faith!" I exclaimed. "And whatever evil the people did they repaired it nobly by penance and by the great monuments they built up."
As we turned to leave the room I asked Winifred:
"Are you going to leave all these valuable things here?"
"Why, of course!" she answered in surprise.