“Then you never wish to see the world beyond?”
“Why should I? Above all, now that we have found the gate into the great world beyond and above, and have learned that the Light of all the world is with us everywhere.”
And in a low sweet voice she began to chant Patrick’s Irish hymn—
“Christ beside me, Christ before me;
Christ behind me, Christ within me;
Christ beneath me, Christ above me;
Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left.”
Again the deer-hound gave a growl, but this time louder, and followed by a short anxious bark. There was again a soft rustle among the trees in the glen below them, but it ceased, and there was silence again, and Ethne threw her arm round the dog, and said—
“Hush, Bran darling; you must no longer be a suspicious heathen dog. Quiet!”
He lay down again with his head on her knee, licking her hand in response to her caress, yet still with ears pricked up, and an occasional anxious quiver through his whole frame.