"But Rebecca?"
"Even the austerities of Ballinamult have not made you forget Rebecca?"
"Hardly—I shouldn't like to think that I had been the cause of keeping you from her even for a short while."
There came between them now one of those long spells of silence which seemed essential parts of their friendship.
"You're in a queer mood this evening?" John said at last.
"I suppose I am, and that there's no use in trying to hide it.... D'ye know what it is, Brennan? We two seem to have changed a great deal since last summer. I simply can't look at things in the same light-hearted way. I suppose I went too far, and that I must be paying for it now. But there are just a few things I have done for which I am sorry—I'm sorry about this affair with Rebecca Kerr."
John was listening with quiet attention to the remarks which Ulick was letting fall from him disjointedly.
"I'm sorry, sorry, sorry that I should ever have come here to meet her, for somehow it has brought me to this state of mind and not to any happiness at all. I'm doubtful, too, if it has brought any happiness to her."
"That's strange," said John, "and I thought you two were very happy in your friendship."