They get
worse and worse. How do we know they'll ever come?"
Again Mrs. O'Brien seemed lost in deep thought, or in a dream, just as
when, a little while before, she had told them of O'Donoghue. What she
told them now was a sort of answer to John's question, but perhaps
she told it quite as much to draw their thoughts away from America.
She was silent for a little while, and they all waited for her to
speak.
"Good times for Ireland there will be again," she said, "when Earl
Gerald comes back. It was hundreds of years ago that Earl Gerald lived
in his great castle of Mullaghmast. He was a strong warrior and he
fought many a good fight for his people against their foes. More than
that, he was powerful in magic. He could work mighty charms and he
could change himself into any form he liked.
"His wife knew that he could do this, but he had never shown himself
to her in any form but his own. She often begged him to let her see
what his magic could do, and to change himself to some other form for
her. But he knew there was danger in it, and he put her off with one
reason and another.
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