Chapter 8
There are good and evil people in this and in every other world,
and the person who goes hence will go to the good or the evil that
is native to him, while those who return come as surely to their
due. The trouble which had fallen on Becuma did not leave her
repentant, and the sweet lady began to do wrong as instantly and
innocently as a flower begins to grow. It was she who was
responsible for the ills which had come on Ireland, and we may
wonder why she brought these plagues and droughts to what was now
her own country.
Under all wrong-doing lies personal vanity or the feeling that
we are endowed and privileged beyond our fellows. It is probable
that, however courageously she had accepted fate, Becuma had been
sharply stricken in her pride; in the sense of personal
