But when he went back to spend his Christmas at Scroope, he had never told even himself that he intended to be her lover.
"Good-bye, Mrs.O'Hara," he said, a day or two before he left Ennis.
"So you're going ?" "Oh yes, I'm off.

The orders from home are imperative.

One has to cut one's lump of Christmas beef and also one's lump of Christmas pudding.
It is our family religion, you know." "What a happiness to have a family to visit!" "It's all very well, I suppose.

I don't grumble.

Only it's a bore going away, somehow." "You are coming back to Ennis ?" asked Kate.
"Coming back;--I should think so.