It was as if she had always rested there and it was mere Nature that he should hold and comfort her.

But he had never heard or dreamed of the possibility of such anguish as was in her sobbing.
"They will take you!" she said.

"And--you danced too.

And I must not hold you back! And I must stay here and wait and wait--and _wait_--until some day--! Donal! Donal!" He sat down with her amongst the gorse and held her on his knee as if she had been six years old.

She did not attempt to move but crouched there and clung to him with both hands.