Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/170

156 "Ask something else!" said Dermot. "Where did you leave her?" said he. "Did he take her from you? You are a good-for-nothing man to let her go with him."

"He has been like that since I came," said the nurse. "His tongue never rests; he is always talking."

"Do you know me, Dermot?" said Shiana.

"Do I know you! It is as right for me to know you as it is for you to know me. It is as right for you to know me as it is for me to know you. It is as right for me to know you as it is for you to know me" He went on in that way repeating the same words over and over, and taking care to invert their order alternately, and whenever he happened to miss any word or not to make the inversion exactly in order, he went back upon the expressions until he satisfied his mind that they were in order as he wished them. Then he would quicken his speech as if he had laid a wager as to how many times he could repeat the words without drawing breath. He would strain himself so much that you would think he would choke himself for want of breath. After a while he ceased from those rushings of speech, and looked over into the corner of the room.

"It is a shame for you all," said he. "There is that poor man over yonder with his head bursting with pain and none of you would look after him."