‘There is no one here,’ said Duallach, ’for Dermott of the Sheep is too proud to welcome Costello the Proud,’ and he threw the door open, and they saw a ragged, dirty, very old woman, who sat upon the floor leaning against the wall.  Costello knew that it was Bridget Delaney, a deaf and dumb beggar; and she, when she saw him, stood up and made a sign to him to follow, and led him and his companion up a stair and down a long corridor to a closed door.  She pushed the door open and went a little way off and sat down as before; Duallach sat upon the ground also, but close to the door, and Costello went and gazed upon Winny sleeping upon a bed.  He sat upon a chair beside her and waited, and a long time passed and still she slept on, and then Duallach motioned to him through the door to wake her, but he hushed his very breath, that she might sleep on, for his heart was full of that ungovernable pity which makes the fading heart of the lover a shadow of the divine heart.  Presently he turned to Duallach and said:  ’It is not right that I stay here where there are none of her kindred, for the common people are always ready to blame the beautiful.’  And then they went down and stood at the door of the house and waited, but the evening wore on and no one came.

‘It was a foolish man that called you Proud Costello,’ Duallach cried at last; ’had he seen you waiting and waiting where they left none but a beggar to welcome you, it is Humble Costello he would have called you.’

Then Costello mounted and Duallach mounted, but when they had ridden a little way Costello tightened the reins and made his horse stand still.  Many minutes passed, and then Duallach cried:  ’It is no wonder that you fear to offend Dermott of the Sheep, for he has many brothers and friends, and though he is old, he is a strong man and ready with his hands, and he is of the Queen’s Irish, and the enemies of the Gael are upon his side.’

And Costello answered flushing and looking towards the house:  ’I swear by the Mother of God that I will never return there again if they do not send after me before I pass the ford in the Brown River,’ and he rode on, but so very slowly that the sun went down and the bats began to fly over the bogs.  When he came to the river he lingered awhile upon the bank among the flowers of the flag, but presently rode out into the middle and stopped his horse in a foaming shallow.  Duallach, however, crossed over and waited on a further bank above a deeper place.  After a good while Duallach cried out again, and this time very bitterly:  ’It was a fool who begot you and a fool who bore you, and they are fools of all fools who say you come of an old and noble stock, for you come of whey-faced beggars who travelled from door to door, bowing to gentles and to serving-men.