Roche, so you can understand what a very long while ago it
was, and how little of the story of her life had come to the
knowledge of those living now.
It was certainly sixty years since she had gone away with this
young man; she had lived with him in Meath for some years, nobody
knew exactly how many years, maybe some nine or ten years, and
then he had died suddenly, and his death, it appears, had taken
away from her some part of her reason. It was known for certain
that she left Meath after his death, and had remained away many
years. She had returned to Meath about twenty years ago, though
not to the place she had lived in before. Some said she had
experienced misfortunes so great that they had unsettled her mind.
She herself had forgotten her story, and one day news had come to
Galway--news, but it was sad news, that she was living in some
very poor cottage on the edge of Navan town, where her strange
behaviour and her strange life had made a scandal of her. The
priest had to inquire out her relations, and it took him some time
to do this, for the old woman's answers were incoherent, but he at
length discovered she came from Galway, and he had written to the
O'Dwyers. And immediately on receiving the priest's letter, Alec
sent his wife to Navan, and she had come back with the old woman.
"And it was time indeed that I went to fetch her," she said. "The
boys in the town used to make game of her, and follow her, and
throw things at her, and they nearly lost the poor thing the
little reason that was left to her.
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