There were three of them--two ladies, and a young man escorting them. They came up laughing, evidently amused, and enjoying the sense of discovery--for Inishmaan was all but untrodden ground--a flutter of skirts and parasols, of hat-ribands and waterproof cloaks filling up the pathway. Grania stood doggedly waiting--her head a little thrown back; something of the stir and stress that filled her visible in her whole look and bearing; a wild, untamed vision of strength and savage beauty standing beside that crooked and stunted thorn-bush. The visitors to the island were a little taken by surprise by it. One of the two ladies put up an eyeglass to look at her, at the same time touching her friend’s arm so as to call her attention. With an angry sense that she was being stared at, Grania on her side turned and gazed fiercely at them, her great slumberous eyes, so Southern in their darkness, filled with a curious lowering light. The visitors passed hastily on up the track. ‘Did you notice that girl standing above the pathway?’ one of the ladies said to the other. ‘How she stared! Did you observe? Not quite pleasant, was it?’ ‘Yes,’ the other answered, clutching rather feverishly at her skirts. ‘Don’t go so quickly, dear. What stones! Yes, I noticed her. A fine, handsome creature, I thought--picturesque, too, in her red petticoat--but, as you say, not exactly pleasant-looking. Generally they have such good manners, poor creatures--quite decent, you know!’ They hurried on, for a storm was clearly coming up, and the yacht was not built for heavy weather. Quick, hot gusts of wind kept following one another over the grey, treeless surface of the island. The sea, too, sent up an occasional growl--a hint as to what might be coming. The visit to Dun Connor had accordingly to be cut short, and, with a hasty glance at the wilderness of stone around them, the visitors turned down the path again, and betook themselves to the shore. From her usual post beside the cabin Grania watched them stumbling over the stones in their haste and rapidly embarking, with a feeling of satisfaction in her own fierce sea and sky which had scared away these fine people so suddenly.