"Maybe he used to be putting his two arms around you now and then beside a hedge and giving you long kisses on the mouth?"
"He used to be doing that."
"Aye did he, indeed, and he wasn't the first man to do that, Eileen."
"Maybe you're right, Padraig."
"Nor the twenty-first."
"You've got me here in the house, Padraig, and the people around us are your own friends."
Caeltia also had arisen to his feet and was staring morosely at Eileen. Suddenly he leaped to her, wrenched the shawl from her head with a wide gesture, and gripped her throat between his hands; as her head touched the ground she gasped, and then, and just as suddenly, he released her. He stood up, looking wildly at Patsy, who stared back at him grinning like a madman, then he stumbled across to Finaun and took his hands between his own.
"You must not hurt me, my dear," said Finaun, smiling gravely at him.
Mary had leaped to Art, whose arm she took, and they backed to the end of the room.
Eileen stood up; she arranged her dress and wrapped the shawl about her head again; she gazed fearlessly at Mac Cann.