“And who are you, boy?” she asked. “What brings you to the vicarage?”
Dermot told her his short history.
“You are then a pupil of my uncle’s?”
“Yes, his reverence has been teaching me, and I love to learn from him,” answered Dermot.
This led to further conversation, and Dermot told her of his mother, who lived down in the little cottage in Blackwater cove.
“And have you any brothers, sisters, or relations?” she asked.
“Except Uncle Shane, none that I know of,” said Dermot.
“Your mother, then, lives all alone.”
“Yes, since my father’s death, twelve years ago, she has lived by herself, with me alone to take care of, in her little hut.”
“And you never wish to leave your home, and go and see the great world?” asked Miss O’Reilly. Why she put the question it was difficult to say. It might not have been a very judicious one, as far as the boy was concerned, and yet it was but natural to suppose that a boy of Dermot’s character would wish to go forth into the great world, that he might inspect its wonders.