IX. The Strange Voice
EILEEN sat very silent amongst the group that gathered around the turf fire in the low thatched cottage.
"What has come to your light heart?" one said to her. "You are that quiet, I keep forgetting Eileen Murphy is with us at all."
But the head of the old grandmother nodded slowly, and it was she who answered for Eileen.
"I'm afeard," she said, "the boy is gone. It is seven days since he walked from that door, and not a word or sight of him since. I'm afeard the boy is gone."
Eileen drew her bare feet from the fire, as though a spark had fallen upon them. She shrank further into the shadow.
"I met him that night outside your door," the neighbour said, knocking the ashes from his pipe upon the stone hearth. "He borrowed
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