"You Remember Me, My Lady, I Saw You When You
Stopped At - - " Some Whispered Name With An O To It.
The woman's face
was strangely familiar, but I was on entirely new ground.
There is enchantment in this western country. I was completely
bewildered when a frieze-coated farmer told me, "That was a grand speech
you made at Tuam, and true every word of it." It was a little confusing,
seeing that I have never been in Tuam, or very near it at all. This old
gentleman enquired coaxingly if I were going to speak at Ennis, and
assured me of a grand welcome to be got up in a hurry. Then he and the
farmer's wife exchanged thoughts - that "I did not want anybody to know I
was in it" - in aggravating whispers as I looked steadily out of the
windows to assure myself that I was I. My friend in frieze then began to
draw my attention to certain landmarks, the ruins of this abbey and that
castle, and the other graveyard as points of interest with which I was
supposed to be familiar.
Truly this part of Clare seemed to have any amount of square castles in
ruined grandeur scattered along the line of rail. We stopped at a
station and saw Ennis lying below us, and O'Connell's statue rising up
between us and the sky. My two friends parted from me here to my immense
relief. I felt as if I were obtaining admiration on false pretences.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 337 of 404
Words from 89177 to 89428
of 107283
