"That is the branch of all the wisdom
Colum taught me. Old Neis, the helot, was
wise. It is a madness, all that. See, it is
gone; it is beneath my feet. I am a man
now."

" But O Cathal, Cathal ! this very day of
the days, Ecta, my father, has become a man
of the Christ-faith, him and his ; and he would
do what Molios asked now. And Molios
would ask your death."

" Death is a dream."

With that Cathal leaned forward and kissed
Ardanna upon the lips twice. "A kiss for

333



Cathal of the Woods

life that," he said; "and that a kiss for
death."

Ardanna laughed a low laugh. " The
monk can kiss," she whispered ; " can the
monk love ? "

He put his arm about her, and they went
into the dim dark greenness.
The moon rose slowly, a globe of pale gold-
en fire which spilled unceasingly a yellow
flame upon the suspended billows of the for-
est. Star after star emerged. Deep silence
was in the woods, save for the strange, pas-
sionate churring of a night-jar, where he
leaned low from a pine branch and called to
his mate, whose heart throbbed a flight-away
amid the dewy shadows.
The wind was still. The white rays of the
stars wandered over the moveless, over the
shadowless and breathless green lawns of the
tree-tops.
" What is that sound ? " said Ardanna, a
dim shape in the darkness, where she lay in
the arms of Cathal.
" 1 know not," said the youth ; for the
fevered blood in his veins sang a song against
his ears.
" Listen ! "

Cathal listened. He heard nothing. His
eyes dreamed again into the silence.
