And after a while he took notice that there was a door close to him,
and a light coming from it, and he wondered that being so close to
him he had not seen it before. And he rose up, and tired as he was he
went in at the door, of and although it was night time outside, it
was daylight he found within. And presently he met with an old man
that had been gathering summer thyme and yellow flag-flowers, and it
seemed as if all the sweet smells of the summer were with them. And
the old man said: 'It is a long time you have been coming to us,
Hanrahan the learned man and the great songmaker.'

And with that he brought him into a very big shining house, and every
grand thing Hanrahan had ever heard of, and every colour he had ever
seen, were in it. There was a high place at the end of the house, and
on it there was sitting in a high chair a woman, the most beautiful
the world ever saw, having a long pale face and flowers about it, but
she had the tired look of one that had been long waiting. And there
was sitting on the step below her chair four grey old women, and the
one of them was holding a great cauldron in her lap; and another a
great stone on her knees, and heavy as it was it seemed light to her;
and another of them had a very long spear that was made of pointed
wood; and the last of them had a sword that was without a scabbard.
Red Hanrahan stood looking at them for a long Hanrahan-time, but none
of them spoke any word to him or looked at him at all. And he had it
in his mind to ask who that woman in the chair was, that was like a
queen, and what she was waiting for; but ready as he was with his
tongue and afraid of no person, he was in dread now to speak to so
beautiful a woman, and in so grand a place. And then he thought to
ask what were the four things the four grey old women were holding
like great treasures, but he could not think of the right words to