“She was very good,” Martin said. “I remember that day we got married, I was standing off to myself, looking at the Slaney. I was lost in admiration. I was looking through a gap in the hedge — one of the children had pulled open a place there, to look through. The river seemed very close up to the garden, under my feet. It was very close. Even then the water was eating in under the garden, and the little strand they told me they had there at one time was gone, or nearly gone. I remember I was there by myself — the water was dazzling. I didn’t know where I was. I was inside a dream, and everything was safe, I know. The Slaney was very broad that day, and powerful, sure and strong — you know the way it used to be. An Irish river of great importance, the inspector said the day he visited the school. But I felt grand, looking at the Slaney that day. To know it was my own native river and was so, long before I was born. I was standing there like that, when Delia’s Aunt Mag came up alongside me. ‘I was looking for you,’ she said. My God, how well I remember her voice, as if it was five minutes ago. We might still be there. ‘I was looking for you,’ she said. She saw the break in the hedge. ‘Ah, you found a spy hole,’ she said. And do you know what she did? She put her arm around my shoulders. She was taller than me — they were big women in that family — and she stuck her face out past me so that she could see what I was looking at. I started to move to the side, to give her room, but she held on to me. ‘Stay where you are,’ she said. I said, ‘I’m in your way.’ ‘You’re not in my way, child,’ she said. ‘Haven’t you more right to stand here than anybody? I only want to have a little look before Willie comes along and finds this hole and starts to patch it up. “The lads have been up to mischief again” — that’s what Willie will say. He says they’re tearing down the hedge, helping the garden into the river. The river is eating up the garden, you know — if it wasn’t for Willie always on guard, we’d be swallowed up.’ I said, ‘It’s great to see the Slaney like this.’ ‘I have a great fondness for the water,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t be content any place but here where I was born and brought up. I’ve never spent a night away from this house in my life, do you know that? It’s a blessing the day turned out so grand. And nobody was sick or anything. Everybody was able to come see Delia married. The Slaney is in full flood, and the springs of affection are rising around us.’ She spoke the truth. The Slaney was in full flood that day.”