STAGE IRISHMEN AND OTHERS 249 



" Every movement that I make seems to bring' 

 down the anger of heaven, sinee I first thought of 

 deceiving my father. . . ." "How will it be" (she 

 asks), "if the boat breaks under us, and my father is 

 told tliat his daughter was washed ashore a corpse, 

 with a blot upon her name, and no one living that 

 can clear it ? " 



It is when we meet with Lowry Looby, with Poll 

 Naughton, with Dalton, the dying huntsman, that it 

 is possible to understand the attraction that Gerald 

 Griffin still possesses for readers who are not too 

 impatient of his moralities and conventionalities. Old 

 INIihil, Eily's father, in spite of lapses into the purple 

 that is usually reserved for his betters, can impart a 

 feeling of pathos and sincerity. " I'm ashamed o' 

 myself," he says, " to be always this way, like an 

 owld woman, moaning and behoning among the 

 neighbours, like an owld goose, that would be cack- 

 ling afther the flock, or a fool of a little bird, whistling 

 upon a bough of a summer evening, afther the nest 

 is robbed." And Myles na Coppaleen, the moun- 

 taineer, with his " parcel o' little ponies not the height 

 o' the chair," Foxy Dunat, the hair-cutter, " bowing 

 and smiling, with a timid and conciliating air," Mrs. 

 Frawley, the cook, and Nelly, the housemaid, all have 

 that breath of life that is sought for in vain among 

 the leading ladies and gentlemen; while Lowry 

 Looby, with his songs and his ghost stories, is too 

 good a character to be smothered and crushed into a 

 corner by the solemnities of Kyrle Daly. 



" And you wouldn't believe, now, Master Kyrle, 

 that anything does be sliowin' itself at night at all ? 

 Or used to be of owld ? " [asks Lowry of that unspeak- 

 able prig, his " young master."] " It must be very 

 long since, Lowry " [condescends Master Kyrle]. 

 " W^iy then, see this, sir, the whole country will tell 



