MONEY MATTERS 175 



tragic. Real grief is always tragic, even the grief 

 of a child over a broken toy, and this was real 

 grief, and it taught me more in five minutes about 

 Ireland, and why the Irish in America hate Eng- 

 land, than I learned from all my months spent in 

 the country itself. It did not seem grief for a lost 

 country so much as for a lost father or mother, 

 and, mind you, she was with people she knew, and 

 she was only being ' expatriated ' for a few months. 

 What must they have suffered in the old days, 

 those people driven from their homes and hold- 

 ings to a country three thousand miles away, 

 never to come back? Mr French got her brandy 

 from the refreshment-room, and we took her in the 

 first-class carriage with us ; but all her cry was to 

 go back; and what lent a grim humour to the 

 situation was the fact that none of us can go back 

 to Ireland from this expedition into England till 

 a certain something has been accompHshed. There 

 seems something mysterious and sinister in that 

 statement, but there is really nothing sinister in 

 the situation. Only a horse. However, to return 

 to the servants. Mrs D. has recovered somewhat, 

 but Nor ah, the parlour-maid, has now broken 

 down. She is a pretty girl with black hair, grey 

 eyes and beautiful teeth, and she is sitting at the 

 moment in the kitchen, with her apron over her 

 head, ' eating her heart out,' to use Mrs DriscoU's 

 expression. The curious thing is that both these 

 women have no relations of any account to tie them 

 to Ireland. It's just Ireland itseH they want — 



