Norah’s eyes were closed and a pallor overspread her features.
“Are ye asleep, lassie?”
There was no answer to her question; the woman bent closer and pressed Norah’s breast with her hand.
“Are ye come back, Ellen?” Norah asked without opening her eyes. “I was dreamin’ in the same old way,” she went on. “I saw him comin’ back again. He was standin’ by me bed and he was very kind like he always was.”
“But he’s here, little lass,” said Ellen, turning to Dermod Flynn. “Speak to her, man,” she whispered. “She’s been wearin’ her heart away for you, for a long weary while. Speak to her and we’ll save her yet. She’s just wanderin’ in her head.”
Norah opened her eyes; the candle was going out and Dermod could mark the play of light and shade on the girl’s face.
“Then it was not dreamin’ that I was!” she cried. “It’s Dermod himself that’s in it and back again. Just comin’ to see me! It’s himself that has the kindly Glenmornan heart and always had. Dermod, Dermod! I have a lot to speak to ye about!”
Her voice became strained; to speak cost her an effort, and Dermod, who had risen, bent down to catch her words.
“It was ye that I was thinkin’ of all the time, and I was foolish when I was workin’ in Micky’s Jim’s squad. It’s all my fault and sorrow is on me because I made you suffer. Maybe ye’ll go home some day. If ye do, go to me mother’s house and ask her to forgive me. Tell her that I died on the year I left Micky’s Jim’s squad. I was not me mother’s child after that; I was dead to all the world. My fault could not be undone; that’s what made the blackness of it. Never let yer own sisters go to the strange country, Dermod, never let them go to the potato squad, for it’s the place that is evil for a girl like me that hasn’t much sense.... Ye’re not angry with me, Dermod, are ye?”
“Norah, I was never angry with you,” said the young man, and he kissed her. “You don’t think that I was angry with you?”