THE CHILD
Ah! but you love this fireside!
FATHER HART
I love you.
When the Almighty puts so great a share
Of His own ageless youth into a creature,
To look is but to love.
THE CHILD
But you love Him above.
BRIDGET BRUIN
She is blaspheming.
THE CHILD (to MAIRE)
And do you love me?
MARIE BRUIN
I—I do not know.
THE CHILD
You love that great tall fellow over there:
Yet I could make you ride upon the winds,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame!
MARIE BRUIN
Queen of the Angels and kind Saints, defend us!
Some dreadful fate has fallen: a while ago
The wind cried out and took the primroses,
And she ran by me laughing in the wind,
And I gave milk and fire, and she came in
And made you hide the blessed crucifix.
FATHER HART
You fear because of her wild, pretty prattle;
She knows no better.
(To THE CHILD)