Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/276

262 "An enemy!" said Shiana. "I never had an enemy but yourself. I suppose you would not expect that I would yield to you as long as I could get the better of you."

"I was of little consequence as an enemy, compared with her," said the Black Man.

"Compared with her!" said Shiana. "I do not remember the person. Who was she? Tell me her name. Speak plainly, and drop your hinting."

"The woman that made a stone of your heart and a mist of your head, and a forge-fire of your mind! Is that plain enough for you?" said the Black Man.

Shiana paused and looked at him. He rubbed his eyes with his hand and looked at him again. The two looked each other in the eyes for some time.

"You are the devil!" said Shiana, at last.

"The devil himself is not a match for you!" said the Black Maa. "I thought the money would lead you astray. Seldom a man gets it who does not make misfortune for himself, and perhaps for a great many more on account of it. Misfortune comes of it to him who gets it, and misfortune to him who fails to get it. The man who gets it is waylaid in the night and killed, in order to take it from him. It is the man who has not money that kills the man who has it. There you have