He continued, carefully weighing his words, and still intently looking across the shoulders of his companions to his friend:-- "Besides, there is Ethne herself.

Dermod for once did an appropriate thing when he gave her that name.

For she is of her country, and more, of her county.

She has the love of it in her bones.

I do not think that she could be quite happy in India, or indeed in any place which was not within reach of Donegal, the smell of its peat, its streams, and the brown friendliness of its hills.