W.B Yeats These were to be important years. Constance on her return home to Lissadell met with W. B. Yeats, who was spending the winter of 1893-1894 with his uncle George Pollexfen, at at Thornhill, outside Sligo. Yeats may have been suffering from mental exhaustion in part due to his unrequited love for Maud Gonne. When at Lissadell, Yeats was asked to lecture on Irish folklore in the school house by the Reverend Fletcher Le Fanu, a nephew of the novelist Sheridan Le Fanu. The Rev Le Fanu later officiated at the wedding of Constance to Casimir Markievicz in London in 1900. Yeats described the Lissadell Gallery as "a great sitting room, high as a church": W. B. Yeats was much taken by the Lissadell family, whom he described as being… "A very pleasant, kindly inflammable family…ever ready to take up new ideas and new things. The eldest son is theoretically a home ruler and practically some kind of humanitarian, much troubled by the responsibility of his wealth and almost painfully conscientious." The girls he referred to as… "Two beautiful figures among the great trees of Lissadell…". Whilst he befriended both Constance and Eva, it was to Eva he confided his unhappy love for Maud Gonne. He acknowledged a physical resemblance between Constance and Maud Gonne. On her return to London Constance regularly met with Yeats. She took him to a séance, and also apparently tried to involve him in a fight: Sarah Purser records that she and Anna Nordgren, having formed the view that a man called Browne had insulted them, tried to induce "Willy Yeats" to challenge him to a duel on their behalf. They were unsuccessful. Through Yeats, Constance met Oscar Wilde who had just become reconciled with his wife, after his (apparent) pursuit of the lovely London actress, Lilly Langtry. At this time Constance appears to have been involved in all aspects of London life. She was fascinated and amused by the social niceties then prevailing. She assembled a collection of letters and autographs from many of the people with whom she now came into contact. Her collection includes signatures from Kate Greenway, Oscar Wilde, Wilkie Collins and Thomas Hardy.