"
He led the way up a spiral stair that might almost have gone inside
the newel of the great staircase. Up and up they went, until Donal
began to wonder, and still they went up.
"You're young, sir," said the butler, "and sound of wind and limb;
so you'll soon think nothing of it."
"I never was up so high before, except on a hill-side," returned
Donal. "The college-tower is nothing to this!"
"In a day or two you'll be shooting up and down it like a bird. I
used to do so myself. I got into the way of keeping a shoulder
foremost, and screwing up as if I was a blob of air! Old age does
make fools of us!"
"You don't like it then?"
"No, I do not: who does?"
"It's only that you get spent as you go up. The fresh air at the
top of the stair will soon revive you," said Donal.
But his conductor did not understand him.
"That's all very well so long as you're young; but when it has got
you, you'll pant and grumble like the rest of us."
In the distance Donal saw Age coming slowly after him, to claw him
in his clutch, as the old song says. "Please God," he thought, "by
the time he comes up, I'll be ready to try a fall with him! O Thou
eternally young, the years have no hold on thee; let them have none
on thy child. I too shall have life eternal."
Ere they reached the top of the stair, the man halted and opened a
door. Donal entering saw a small room, nearly round, a portion of
the circle taken off by the stair.
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