said the man of the house. 'And who is she,' he said, 'and what is it
you are talking about?'

'It was this night a year ago, I was in a barn, and there were men
playing cards, and there was money on the table, they were pushing it
from one to another here and there--and I got a message, and I was
going out of the door to look for my sweetheart that wanted me, Mary
Lavelle.' And then Hanrahan called out very loud: 'Where have I been
since then? Where was I for the whole year?'

'It is hard to say where you might have been in that time,' said the
oldest of the men, 'or what part of the world you may have travelled;
and it is like enough you have the dust of many roads on your feet;
for there are many go wandering and forgetting like that,' he said,
'when once they have been given the touch.'

'That is true,' said another of the men. 'I knew a woman went
wandering like that through the length of seven years; she came back
after, and she told her friends she had often been glad enough to eat
the food that was put in the pig's trough. And it is best for you to
go to the priest now,' he said, 'and let him take off you whatever
may have been put upon you.'

'It is to my sweetheart I will go, to Mary Lavelle,' said Hanrahan;
'it is too long I have delayed, how do I know what might have
happened her in the length of a year?'

He was going out of the door then, but they all told him it was best
for him to stop the night, and to get strength for the journey; and
indeed he wanted that, for he was very weak, and when they gave him