Page 72 - The snake's pass

60 — THE SNAKE'S PASS.
nanaher in the cause of my reticence. I could bear
to be " chaffed " about a superstitious feeling respecting
a mountain, or I could endure the same process \ re-
garding a girl of whom I had no high ideal, no sweet
illusive memory.
I would never complete the argument, even to myself
—then; later on, the cause or subject of it varied.!
It was not without a certain conflict of feelings that
I approached Carnaclif, even though on this occasion I
approached it from the South, whereas on my former
visit I had come from the North. I felt that the
time went miserably slowly, and yet nothing would
have induced me to admit so much. I almost regretted
that I had come, even whilst I was harrowed with
thoughts that I might not be able to arrive at all at
Knockcalltecrore. At times I felt as though the whole
thing had been a dream; and again as though the
romantic nimbus with which imagination had sur-
rounded and hallowed all things must pass away and
show that my unknown beings and my facts of delicate
fantasy were but stern and vulgar realities.
The people at the little hotel made me welcome
with the usual effusive hospitable intention of the
West. Indeed, I was somewhat nettled at how well
they remembered me, as for instance when the buxom
landlady said :
"I'm glad to be able to tell ye, sir, that yer car-
man, Andy Sullivan, is here now. He kem with a
commercial from Westport to Eoundwood, an' is on