“The mother would have you come in soon, I think,” she said.
“Soon—in an instant!” they answered. “But there will never be another day quite like this in all our lives, and we want to live it to the end.”
And when the old nurse had left, Ethne said—
“Every bit of the world seems so close to the heavenly King, why should I wish to be anywhere but where we are; where all our beloved are; where our father and mother have the homage of all; where all would die for us; where all would follow us in life and death; where a word from our lips is law, and a wish of our hearts is understood and obeyed before we can speak it?”
“It is for these, it is just because of their love, I sometimes wish to go afar and learn,” replied Baithene. “The world seems so wide and so wise there beyond—I want to bring back treasures, such as Patrick himself has brought to our Ireland.”
Ethne looked up in his face with a tender anxiety.
“Would you leave us, brother beloved?” said she.
“Only to enrich you all, darling,” he said, “to win back treasures for all.”
“But it is you we want,” said Ethne, “not anything you could bring. What could you bring to us to make up for the loss of what you are to us? And how could you learn to serve our people as well as by being with them always from boyhood to grey hairs?”
He smiled.