158 GARRYOWEN 



" Yes," she replied, " and I saw it in the garden 

 this morning, and I spoke to it, and asked it what 

 it was doing, and — well, I don't wonder at your 

 wanting to leave Ireland." 



" Not whilst there's things like that in it," said 

 the master of Drumgool, following Doolan and 

 his charge with his eyes till they disappeared from 

 sight. " And now, let's get to work." 



The sunlight of the early morning had vanished, 

 and almost as the cart and its contents turned 

 from the avenue drive into the road the rain be- 

 gan to come down again in great sheets ; thunder- 

 ous pourings, as if to make up for lost time. But 

 it was a merry rain, at least in the ears of the 

 girl. " You're going, you're going ; " the rain beat 

 a tattoo to the words on the zinc roof of outhouse 

 and window-pane. " To-morrow," slobbered the 

 overflowing water-butts, and " Sussex," hissed the 

 schoolroom fire as the raindrops down the chimney 

 hit the burning coals. 



No one but a woman knows the things to be 

 done in a sudden disruption of a household like 

 this. " Everything must be covered up, and 

 everything must be turned over," is a broad axiom 

 that only just covers the situation when a house is 

 to be left uninhabited for a number of months. 

 That is to say, carpets must be taken up, beaten, 

 and folded; pictures and looking-glasses taken 

 down, covered in brown paper and placed on the 

 floor. A sort of spring cleaning, petrified half-way 

 through and left in a state of suspension, is the 



