Page:Darby O'Gill and the Good People by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh (1903).djvu/65

Rh an’ now it stood before a broad flight of stone steps which led up to the main door of the castle. Darby, half afraid, peering out through the darkness, saw a square of light high above him which came from the open hall door. Three sarvants in livery stood waiting on the thrashol.

“Make haste, make haste!” says one, in a doleful voice; “their supper’s gettin’ cowld.”

Hearing these words, Bridget imagetly bounced out, an’ was half way up the steps before Darby could ketch her an’ hould her till the childher came up.

“I never in all my life saw her so owdacious,” he says, half cryin’, an’ linkin’ her arm to keep her back, an’ thin, with the childher follying two by two, according to size, the whole family payraded up the steps, till Darby, with a gasp of deloight, stopped on the thrashol of a splendid hall. From a high ceiling hung great flags from every nation an’ domination, which swung and swayed in the dazzlin’ light.

Two lines of men and maid servants dhressed in silks an’ satins an’ brocades, stood facing aich other, bowing an’ smiling an’ wavin’ their hands in welcome. The two lines stretched down to the goold stairway at the far ind of the hall. Rh