And when a
dance ended and the pipers laid down their pipes and lifted their
horn noggins, they stood a little from the others waiting pensively
and silently for the dance to begin again and the fire in their
hearts to leap up and to wrap them anew; and so they danced and
danced Pavane and Saraband and Gallead and Morrice through the night
long, and many stood still to watch them, and the peasants came about
the door and peered in, as though they understood that they would
gather their children's children about them long hence, and tell how
they had seen Costello dance with Dermott's daughter Oona, and become
by the telling themselves a portion of ancient romance; but through
all the dancing and piping Namara of the Lake went hither and thither
talking loudly and making foolish jokes that all might seem well with
him, and old Dermott of the Sheep grew redder and redder, and looked
oftener and oftener at the doorway to see if the candles there grew
yellow in the dawn.
At last he saw that the moment to end had come, and, in a pause after
a dance, cried out from where the horn noggins stood that his
daughter would now drink the cup of betrothal; then Oona came over to
where he was, and the guests stood round in a half-circle, Costello
close to the wall to the right, and the piper, the labourer, the
farmer, the half-witted man and the two farm lads close behind him.
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