The Story of Bawn

ays. There was a great deal of talk about opening up the country, and even the

p," he said, "you will let in

e, for they had opened a light railway, and from the front of the house we could see beyond the lake and the park, through the opening where the Purple Hill rises, that weird thing which rushes round the base of the hill half a doze

nt out to drive we turned our backs upon it, my grandfather saying that he would not insult his horses by letting them look at it,

. We were all much poorer than we once were, except Mr. Dawson, who made his money by money-lending in

to be. They were spinning and weaving in their cottages,

anybody could want their blackberries and their mushrooms; that money was to be made out of even the gathering of shamrocks. They thought that people out in the world who were r

Araglin, only a mile or two from us, and the girls wen

urple Hill, setting all the mountains rattling with echoes, and disturbing the water fowl on the lakes and the song-birds in the woods, the eagle in his e

ng to America. She had been talked over by Miss Champion, my godmother and the greatest friend we have. And Miss Champion was always on the side of the people, and had even persuaded my grandmother to let h

gentry," my grandfather grumbled,

kept nothing from me, and my grandmother has said to me with a watery smile: "If I survive your grandfather, Bawn, my dear, you and I will have to find genteel lodgings in Dub

ll take care of you somewhere. In a little house it may be, but one with a garden where you can walk in the sun

reak to leave Aghadoe. I ask nothing of you and Theobald, Bawn, but that you should take

ur grandparents destined Theobald and me for each other. I have no love for Theobald suc

e but a soldier? Since there have always been soldiers in the fami

w brave and simpl

ghosts of Aghadoe Abbey, but

ome driving home at midnight headless in his coach, and the coachman driving him also headless, carrying his head under

in a glint of the moonlight, her black hair covering her face as she bends to the earth, incessa

ing-and followed her down the stairs, thinking that it was one of the family ill perhaps, who needed some attention. She could tell afterwards the very pattern of the lace on the fine nightgown, and describe how the fair curls clustered on the lady's

ve often thought that the curious formation of the house, which has as many rooms beneath the ground as above it, helped to give it an eerie feeling, for one could not but imagine those downstair rooms filled

fraid. He slept across the corridor from my room, and I ha

n Bawn, fear nothing; for if anything were to frighten you, either ghost or mortal, I would run it through with my sword. At your leas

now I think my cousin, being so healthy and in the air all day

ild winter when Theobald left us, and they cried every night. It is a sound I have never grown used to, though I have heard it every winter I can remember. And also the swish of the satin as it went by my door, and the tap of

h gentle, high-minded people as were my grandfather and grandmother, my cousin Theobald, and my dear godmother. For ghosts, especially

, and your whole soul cries out against it. And it is the worst matter of all when those to whom you have fled all your days for he

I had rather be of the company of the ghost