black thing in his heart. Shure you'll be understandin' it a thousand
times better than meself, y'r anner."

He took a pinch of snuff from a little box, offered it to the Young
Doctor and continued his story.

"Well, as I said, whin five months had gone by they met. By chanct I saw
the meetin'. Watch me now, I'll tell you how it was. She was sittin' on
a bench in the gardin, lookin' in front of her and seein' nothin' but
what was in her mind's eye, and who can tell what she would be seein'!
There she sat sweet as a saint, very straight up, the palms of her hands
laid on the bench on either side, as though they was supporfin' her--like
a statue she looked. I watched her manny a minute, but she niver moved.
Well, there she was, lookin'--lookin' in front o' her, whin round the big
tree in the middle of the gardin he come and stood forninst her. They
just looked and looked at each other without a word. Like months it
seemed. They looked, and looked, as though they was tryin' to read some
story in each other's eyes, and then she give a kind of joyful moan, and
intil his arms she went like a nestlin' bird.

"He raised up her head, and-well, now, y'r anner, I niver saw anything I
liked better. There niver had been a girl in his life, and there niver
was a man in hers--not one that mattered, till they two took up with each
other, and it's a thing--well, y'r anner, I'd be a proud man if I could
write it down. It's a story that'd take its place beside the ancient
ones."

The Young Doctor looked at Patsy meditatively. "Patsy," said he, "the
difference between the north and the south of Ireland is that in the
south they are all poets--" He paused.