After leaving the priest Ned crossed over the road to avoid the public-house. He went for a walk on the hills, and it was about five when he turned towards the village. On his way there he met his father, and Ned told him that he had been to see the priest, and that he was going to take Mary to the lecture.
Michael Kavanagh wished his son God-speed. He was very tired; and he thought it was pretty hard to come home after a long day's work to find his wife and daughter quarrelling.
"I am sorry your dinner is not ready, father, but it won't be long now. I'll cut the bacon."
"I met Ned on the road," said her father. "He has gone to fetch Mary. He is going to take her to the lecture on poultry-keeping at the school-house."
"Ah, he has been to the priest, has he?" said Kate, and her mother asked her why she said that, and the wrangle began again.
Ned was the peacemaker; there was generally quiet in the cabin when he was there. He came in with Mary, a small, fair girl, and a good girl, who would keep his cabin tidy. His mother and sisters were broad-shouldered women with blue-black hair and red cheeks, and it was said that he had said he would like to bring a little fair hair into the family.
"We've just come in for a minute," said Mary. "Ned said that perhaps you'd be coming with us."
"All the boys in the village will be there to-night," said Ned. "You had better come with us." And pretending he wanted to get a coal of fire to light his pipe, Ned whispered to Kate as he passed her, "Pat Connex will be there."
She looked at the striped sunshade she has brought back from the dressmaker's—she had once been apprenticed to a dressmaker—but Ned said that a storm was blowing and she had better leave the sunshade behind.
The rain beat in their faces and the wind came sweeping down the mountain and made them stagger. Sometimes the road went straight on, sometimes it turned suddenly and went up-hill. After walking for a mile they came to the school-house. A number of men were waiting outside, and one of the boys told them that the priest had said they were to keep a look out for the lecturer, and Ned said that he had better stay with them, that his lantern would be useful to show her the way. They went into a long, smoky room. The women had collected into one corner, and the priest was walking up and down, his hands thrust into the pockets of his overcoat. Now he stopped in his walk to scold two children who were trying to light a peat fire in a tumbled down grate.
"Don't be tired, go on blowing," he said. "You are the laziest child I have seen this long while."
Ned came in and blew out his lantern, but the lady he had mistaken for the lecturer was a lady who had come to live in the neighbourhood lately, and the priest said:—
"You must be very much interested in poultry, ma'am, to come out on such a night as this."
The lady stood shaking her waterproof.
"Now, then, Lizzie, run to your mother and get the lady a chair."
And when the child came back with the chair, and the lady was seated by the fire, he said:—
"I'm thinking there will be no lecturer here to-night, and that it would be kind of you if you were to give the lecture yourself. You have read some books about poultry, I am sure?"
"Well, a little—but—"
"Oh, that doesn't matter," said the priest. "I'm sure the book you have read is full of instruction."
He walked up the room towards a group of men and told them they must cease talking, and coming back to the young woman, he said:—
"We shall be much obliged if you will say a few words about poultry. Just say what you have in your mind about the different breeds."
The young woman again protested, but the priest said:—
"You will do it very nicely." And he spoke like one who is not accustomed to being disobeyed. "We will give the lecturer five minutes more."
"Is there no farmer's wife who could speak," the young lady said in a fluttering voice. "She would know much more than I. I see Biddy M'Hale there. She has done very well with her poultry."
"I daresay she has," said the priest, "but the people would pay no attention to her. She is one of themselves. It would be no amusement to them to hear her."
The young lady asked if she might have five minutes to scribble a few notes. The priest said he would wait a few minutes, but it did not matter much what she said.
"But couldn't some one dance or sing," said the young lady.
"Dancing and singing!" said the priest. "No!"
And the young lady hurriedly scribbled a few notes about fowls for laying, fowls for fattening, regular feeding, warm houses, and something about a percentage of mineral matter. She had not half finished when the priest said:—
"Now will you stand over there near the harmonium. Whom shall I announce?"
The young woman told him her name, and he led her to the harmonium and left her talking, addressing most of her instruction to Biddy M'Hale, a long, thin, pale-faced woman, with wistful eyes.
"This won't do," said the priest, interrupting the lecturer,—"I'm not speaking to you, miss, but to my people. I don't see one of you taking notes, not even you, Biddy M'Hale, though you have made a fortune out of your hins. Didn't I tell you from the pulpit that you were to bring pencil and paper and write down all you heard. If you had known years ago all this young lady is going to tell you you would be rolling in your carriages to-day."
Then the priest asked the lecturer to go on, and the lady explained that to get hens to lay about Christmas time, when eggs fetched the best price, you must bring on your pullets early.
"You must," she said, "set your eggs in January."
"You hear that," said the priest. "Is there anyone who has got anything to say about that? Why is it that you don't set your eggs in January?"
No one answered, and the lecturer went on to tell of the advantages that would come to the poultry-keeper whose eggs were hatched in December.
As she said this, the priest's eyes fell upon Biddy M'Hale, and, seeing that she was smiling, he asked her if there was any reason why eggs could not be hatched in the beginning of January.
"Now, Biddy, you must know all about this, and I insist on your telling us. We are here to learn."
Biddy did not answer.
"Then what were you smiling at?"
"I wasn't smiling, your reverence."
"Yes; I saw you smiling. Is it because you think there isn't a brooding hin in January?"
It had not occurred to the lecturer that hens might not be brooding so early in the year, and she waited anxiously. At last Biddy said:—
"Well, your reverence, it isn't because there are no hins brooding. You'll get brooding hins at every time in the year; but, you see, you can't rear chickens earlier than March. The end of February is the earliest I have ever seen. But, of course, if you could rear them in January, all that the young lady said would be quite right. I have nothing to say agin it. I have no fault to find with anything she says, your reverence."
"Only that it can't be done." said the priest. "Well, you ought to know, Biddy."
The villagers were laughing.
"That will do," said the priest. "I don't mind your having a bit of amusement, but you're here to learn."
And as he looked round the room, quieting the villagers into silence, his eyes fell on Kate. "That's all right," he thought, and he looked for the others, and spied Pat Connex and Peter M'Shane near the door. "They're here, too," he thought. "When the lecture is over I will see them and bring them all together. Kate Kavanagh won't go home until she promises to marry Peter. I have had enough of her goings on in my parish."
But Kate had caught sight of Peter. She would get no walk home with Pat that night, and she suspected her brother of having done this for a purpose. She got up to go.
"I don't want anyone to leave this room," said the priest. "Kate Kavanagh, why are you going? Sit down till the lecture is over."
And as Kate had not strength to defy the priest she sat down, and the lecturer continued for a little while longer. The priest could see that the lecturer had said nearly all she had to say, and he had begun to wonder how the evening's amusement was to be prolonged. It would not do to let the people go home until Michael Dunne had closed his public-house, and the priest looked round the audience thinking which one he might call upon to say a few words on the subject of poultry-keeping.
From one of the back rows a voice was heard:—
"What about the pump, your reverence?"
"Well, indeed, you may ask," said the priest.
And immediately he began to speak of the wrong they had suffered by not having a pump in the village. The fact that Almighty God had endowed Kilmore with a hundred mountain streams did not release the authorities from the obligation of supplying the village with a pump. Had not the authorities put up one in the neighbouring village?
"You should come out," he said, "and fight for your rights. You should take off your coats like men, and if you do I'll see that you get your rights," and he looked round for someone to speak.
There was a landlord among the audience, and as he was a Catholic the priest called upon him to speak. He said that he agreed with the priest in the main. They should have their pump, if they wanted a pump; if they didn't, he would suggest that they asked for something else. Farmer Byrne said he did not want a pump, and then everyone spoke his mind, and things got mixed. The Catholic landlord regretted that Father Maguire was against allowing a poultry-yard to the patients in the lunatic asylum. If, instead of supplying a pump, the Government would sell them eggs for hatching at a low price, something might be gained. If the Government would not do this, the Government might be induced to supply books on poultry free of charge. It took the Catholic landlord half an hour to express his ideas regarding the asylum, the pump, and the duties of the Government, and in this way the priest succeeded in delaying the departure of the audience till after closing time. "However fast they walk," he said to himself, "they won't get to Michael Dunne's public-house in ten minutes, and he will be shut by then." It devolved upon him to bring the evening's amusement to a close with a few remarks, and he said:—
"Now, the last words I have to say to you I'll address to the women. Now listen to me. If you pay more attention to your poultry you'll never be short of half a sovereign to lend your husbands, your sons, or your brothers."
These last words produced an approving shuffling of feet in one corner of the room, and seeing that nothing more was going to happen, the villagers got up and they went out very slowly, the women curtseying and the men lifting their caps to the priest as they passed him.
He had signed to Ned and Mary that he wished to speak to them, and after he had spoken to Ned he called Kate and reminded her that he had not seen her at confession lately.
"Pat Connex and Peter M'Shane, now don't you be going. I will have a word with you presently." And while Kate tried to find an excuse to account for her absence from confession, the priest called to Ned and Mary, who were talking at a little distance. He told them he would be waiting for them in church tomorrow, and he said he had never made a marriage that gave him more pleasure. He alluded to the fact that they had come to him. He was responsible for this match, and he accepted the responsibility gladly. His uncle, the Vicar-General, had delegated all the work of the parish to him.
"Father Stafford," he said abruptly, "will be very glad to hear of your marriage, Kate Kavanagh."
"My marriage," said Kate .... "I don't think I shall ever be married."
"Now, why do you say that?" said the priest. Kate did not know why she had said that she would never be married. However, she had to give some reason, and she said:—
"I don't think, your reverence, anyone would have me."
"You are not speaking your mind," said the priest, a little sternly. "It is said that you don't want to be married, that you like courting better."
"I'd like to be married well enough," said Kate.
"Those who wish to make safe, reliable marriages consult their parents and they consult the priest. I have made your brother's marriage for him. Why don't you come to me and ask me to make up a marriage for you?"
"I think a girl should make her own marriage, your reverence."
"And what way do you go about making up a marriage? Walking about the roads in the evening, and going into public-houses, and leaving your situations. It seems to me, Kate Kavanagh, you have been a long time making up this marriage."
"Now, Pat Connex, I've got a word with you. You're a good boy, and I know you don't mean any harm by it; but I have been hearing tales about you. You've been up to Dublin with Kate Kavanagh. Your mother came up to speak to me about this matter yesterday, and she said: 'Not a penny of my money will he ever get if he marries her,' meaning the girl before you. Your mother said; 'I've got nothing to say against her, but I've got a right to choose my own daughter-in-law.' These are your mother's very words, Pat, so you had better listen to reason. Do you hear me, Kate?"
"I hear your reverence."
"And if you hear me, what have you got to say to that?"
"He's free to go after the girl he chooses, your reverence," said Kate.
"There's been courting enough," the priest said. "If you aren't going to be married you must give up keeping company. I see Paddy Boyle outside the door. Go home with him. Do you hear what I'm saying, Pat? Go straight home, and no stopping about the roads. Just do as I bid you; go straight home to your mother."
Pat did not move at the bidding of the priest. He stood watching Kate as if he were waiting for a sign from her, but Kate did not look at him.
"Do you hear what I'm saying to you?" said the priest.
"Yes, I hear," said Pat.
"And aren't you going?" said the priest.
Everyone was afraid Pat would raise his hand against the priest, and they looked such strong men, both of them, that everyone wondered which would get the better of the other.
"You won't go home when I tell you to do so. We will see if I can't put you out of the door then."
"If you weren't a priest," said Pat, "the devil a bit of you would put me out of the door."
"If I weren't a priest I would break every bone in your body for talking to me like that. Now out you go," he said, taking him by the collar, and he put him out.
"And now, Kate Kavanagh," said the priest, coming back from the door, "you said you didn't marry because no man would have you. Peter has been waiting for you ever since you were a girl of sixteen years old, and I may say it for him, since he doesn't say much himself, that you have nearly broken his heart."
"I'm sure I never meant it. I like Peter."
"You acted out of recklessness without knowing what you were doing."
A continual smile floated round Peter's moustache, and he looked like a man to whom rebuffs made no difference. His eyes were patient and docile; and whether it was the presence of this great and true love by her side, or whether it was the presence of the priest, Kate did not know, but a great change came over her, and she said:—
"I know that Peter has been very good, that he has cared for me this long while .... If he wishes to make me his wife—"
When Kate gave him her hand there was a mist in his eyes, and he stood trembling before her.
Next morning, as Father Maguire was leaving the house, his servant handed him a letter. It was from an architect who had been down to examine the walls of the church. The envelope that Father Maguire was tearing open contained his report, and Father Maguire read that it would require two hundred pounds to make the walls secure. Father Maguire was going round to the church to marry Mary Byrne and Ned Kavanagh, and he continued to read the report until he arrived at the church. The wedding party was waiting, but the architect's report was much more important than a wedding, and he wandered round the old walls examining the cracks as he went. He could see they were crumbling, and he believed the architect was right, and that it would be better to build a new church. But to build a new church three or four thousand pounds would be required, and the architect might as well suggest that he should collect three or four millions.
And Ned and Mary noticed the dark look between the priest's eyes as he came out of the sacristy, and Ned regretted that his reverence should be out of his humour that morning, for he had spent three out of the five pounds he had saved to pay the priest for marrying him. He had cherished hopes that the priest would understand that he had had to buy some new clothes, but the priest looked so cross that it was with difficulty he summoned courage to tell him that he had only two pounds left.
"I want two hundred pounds to make the walls of the church safe. Where is the money to come from? All the money in Kilmore goes into drink," he added bitterly, "into blue trousers. No, I won't marry you for two pounds. I won't marry you for less than five. I will marry you for nothing or I will marry you for five pounds," he added, and Ned looked round the wedding guests; he knew that none had five shillings in his pocket, and he did not dare to take the priest at his word and let him marry him for nothing.
Father Maguire felt that his temper had got the better of him, but it was too late to go back on what he said. Marry them for two pounds with the architect's letter in the pocket of his cassock! And if he were to accept two pounds, who would pay five to be married? If he did not stand out for his dues the marriage fee would be reduced from five pounds to one pound ... And if he accepted Ned's two pounds his authority would be weakened; he would not be able to get them to subscribe to have the church made safe. On the whole he thought he had done right, and his servant was of the same opinion.
"They'd have the cassock off your back, your reverence, if they could get it."
"And the architect writing to me that the walls can't be made safe under two hundred pounds, and the whole lot of them not earning less than thirty shillings a week, and they can't pay the priest five pounds for marrying them."
In the course of the day he went to Dublin to see the architect; and next morning it occurred to him that he might have to go to America to get the money to build a new church, and as he sat thinking the door was opened and the servant said that Biddy M'Hale wanted to see his reverence.
She came in curtseying, and before saying a word she took ten sovereigns out of her pocket and put them upon the table. The priest thought she had heard of the architect's report, and he said:—
"Now, Biddy, I am glad to see you. I suppose you have brought me this for my church. You have heard of the money it will cost to make the walls safe."
"No, your reverence, I did not hear any more than that there were cracks in the walls."
"But you have brought me this money to have the cracks mended?"
"Well, no, your reverence. I have been thinking a long time of doing something for the church, and I thought I should like to have a window put up in the church with coloured glass in it."
Father Maguire was touched by Biddy's desire to do something for the church, and he thought he would have no difficulty in persuading her. He could get this money for the repairs, and he told her that her name would be put on the top of the subscription list.
"A subscription from Miss M'Hale—L10. A subscription from Miss M'Hale."
Biddy did not answer, and the priest could see that it would give her no pleasure whatever to subscribe to mending the walls of his church, and it annoyed him to see her sitting in his own chair stretching out her hands to take the money back. He could see that her wish to benefit the church was merely a pretext for the glorification of herself, and the priest began to argue with the old woman. But he might have spared himself the trouble of explaining that it was necessary to have a new church before you could have a window. She understood well enough it was useless to put a window up in a church that was going to fall down. But her idea still was St. Joseph in a red cloak and the Virgin in blue with a crown of gold on her head, and forgetful of everything else, she asked him whether her window in the new church should be put over the high altar, or if it should be a window lighting a side altar.
"But, my good woman, ten pounds will not pay for a window. You couldn't get anything to speak of in the way of a window for less than fifty pounds."
He had expected to astonish Biddy, but she did not seem astonished. She said that although fifty pounds was a great deal of money she would not mind spending all that money if she were to have her window all to herself. She had thought at first of only putting in part of the window, a round piece at the top of the window, and she had thought that that could be bought for ten pounds. The priest could see that she had been thinking a good deal of this window, and she seemed to know more about it than he expected. "It is extraordinary," he said to himself, "how a desire of immortality persecutes these second-class souls. A desire of temporal immortality," he said, fearing he had been guilty of a heresy.
"If I could have the whole window to myself, I would give you fifty pounds, your reverence."
The priest had no idea she had saved as much money as that.
"The hins have been very good to me, your reverence, and I would like to put up the window in the new church better than in the old church."
"But I've got no money, my good woman, to build the church."
"Ah, won't your reverence go to America and get the money. Aren't our own kith and kin over there, and aren't they always willing to give us money for our churches."
The priest spoke to her about statues, and suggested that perhaps a statue would be a more permanent gift, but the old woman knew that stained glass was more permanent, and that it could be secured from breakage by means of wire netting.
"Do you know, Biddy, it will require three or four thousand pounds to build a new church. If I go to America and do my best to get the money, how much will you help me with?"
"Does your reverence mean for the window?"
"No, Biddy, I was thinking of the church itself."
And Biddy said that she would give him five pounds to help to build the church and fifty pounds for her window, and, she added, "If the best gilding and paint costs a little more I would be sorry to see the church short."
"Well, you say, Biddy, you will give five pounds towards the church. Now, let us think how much money I could get in this parish."
He had a taste for gossip, and he liked to hear everyone's domestic details. She began by telling him she had met Kate Kavanagh on the road, and Kate had told her that there had been great dancing last night.
"But there was no wedding," said the priest.
"I only know, your reverence, what Kate Kavanagh told me. There had been great dancing last night. The supper was ordered at Michael Dunne's, and the cars were ordered, and they went to Enniskerry and back."
"But Michael Dunne would not dare to serve supper to people who were not married," said the priest.
"The supper had been ordered, and they would have to pay for it whether they ate it or not. There was a pig's head, and the cake cost eighteen shillings, and it was iced."
"Never mind the food," said the priest, "tell me what happened."
"Kate said that after coming back from Enniskerry, Michael Dunne said: 'Is this the wedding party?' and that Ned jumped off the car, and said: 'To be sure. Amn't I the wedded man.' And they had half a barrel of porter."
"Never mind the drink," said the priest, "what then?"
"There was dancing first and fighting after. Pat Connex and Peter M'Shane were both there. You know Pat plays the melodion, and he asked Peter to sing, and Peter can't sing a bit, and he was laughed at. So he grabbed a bit of stick and hit Pat on the head, and hit him badly, too. I hear the doctor had to be sent for."
"That is always the end of their dancing and drinking," said the priest. "And what happened then, what happened? After that they went home?"
"Yes, your reverence, they went home."
"Mary Byrne went home with her own people, I suppose, and Ned went back to his home."
"I don't know, your reverence, what they did."
"Well, what else did Kate Kavanagh tell you?"
"She had just left her brother and Mary, and they were going towards the Peak. That is what Kate told me when I met her on the road."
"Mary Byrne would not go to live with a man to whom she was not married. But you told me that Kate said she had just left Mary Byrne and her brother."
"Yes, they were just coming out of the cabin," said Biddy. "She passed them on the road."
"Out of whose cabin?" said the priest.
"Out of Ned's cabin. I know it must have been out of Ned's cabin, because she said she met them at the cross roads."
He questioned the old woman, but she grew less and less explicit.
"I don't like to think this of Mary Byrne, but after so much dancing and drinking, it is impossible to say what might not have happened."
"I suppose they forgot your reverence didn't marry them."
"Forgot!" said the priest. "A sin has been committed, and through my fault."
"They will come to your reverence to-morrow when they are feeling a little better."
The priest did not answer, and Biddy said:—
"Am I to take away my money, or will your reverence keep it for the stained glass window."
"The church is tumbling down, and before it is built up you want me to put up statues."
"I'd like a window as well or better."
"I've got other things to think of now."
"Your reverence is very busy. If I had known it I would not have come disturbing you. But I'll take my money with me."
"Yes, take your money," he said. "Go home quietly, and say nothing about what you have told me. I must think over what is best to be done."
Biddy hurried away gathering her shawl about her, and this great strong man who had taken Pat Connex by the collar and could have thrown him out of the school-room, fell on his knees and prayed that God might forgive him the avarice and anger that had caused him to refuse to marry Ned Kavanagh and Mary Byrne.
"Oh! my God, oh! my God," he said, "Thou knowest that it was not for myself that I wanted the money, it was to build up Thine Own House."
He remembered that his uncle had warned him again and again aginst the sin of anger. He had thought lightly of his uncle's counsels, and he had not practised the virtue of humility, which, as St. Teresa said, was the surest virtue to seek in this treacherous world.
"Oh, my God, give me strength to conquer anger."
The servant opened the door, but seeing the priest upon his knees, she closed it quietly, and the priest prayed that if sin had been committed he might bear the punishment.
And on rising from his knees he felt that his duty was to seek out the sinful couple. But how to speak to them of their sins? The sin was not their's. He was the original wrong-doer. If Ned Kavanagh and Mary Byrne were to die and lose their immortal souls, how could the man who had been the cause of the loss of two immortal souls, save his own, and the consequences of his refusal to marry Ned Kavanagh and Mary Byrne seemed to reach to the very ends of Eternity.
He walked to his uncle's with great swift steps, hardly seeing his parishioners as he passed them on the road.
"Is Father Stafford in?"
"Yes, your reverence."
"Uncle John, I have come to consult you."
The priest sat huddled in his arm-chair over the fire, and Father Maguire noticed that his cassock was covered with snuff, and he noticed the fringe of reddish hair about the great bald head, and he noticed the fat inert hands. And he noticed these things more explicitly than he had ever noticed them before, and he wondered why he noticed them so explicitly, for his mind was intent on a matter of great spiritual importance.
"I have come to ask you," Father Tom said, "regarding the blame attaching to a priest who refuses to marry a young man and a young woman, there being no impediment of consanguinity or other."
"But have you refused to marry anyone because they couldn't pay you your dues?"
"Listen, the church is falling."
"My dear Tom, you should not have refused to marry them," he said, as soon as his soul-stricken curate had laid the matter before him.
"Nothing can justify my action in refusing to marry them," said Father Tom, "nothing. Uncle John, I know that you can extenuate, that you are kind, but I do not see it is possible to look at it from any other side."
"My dear Tom, you are not sure they remained together; the only knowledge you have of the circumstances you obtained from that old woman, Biddy M'Hale, who cannot tell a story properly. An old gossip, who manufactures stories out of the slightest materials ... but who sells excellent eggs; her eggs are always fresh. I had two this morning."
"Uncle John, I did not come here to be laughed at."
"I am not laughing at you, my dear Tom; but really you know very little about this matter."
"I know well enough that they remained together last night. I examined the old woman carefully, and she had just met Kate Kavanagh on the road. There can be no doubt about it," he said.
"But," said Father John, "they intended to be married; the intention was there."
"Yes, but the intention is no use. We are not living in a country where the edicts of the Council of Trent have not been promulgated."
"That's true," said Father John. "But how can I help you? What am I to do?"
"Are you feeling well enough for a walk this morning? Could you come up to Kilmore?"
"But it is two miles—I really—"
"The walk will do you good. If you do this for me, Uncle John—"
"My dear Tom, I am, as you say, not feeling very well this morning, but—"
He looked at his nephew, and seeing that he was suffering, he said:—
"I know what these scruples of conscience are; they are worse than physical suffering."
But before he decided to go with his nephew to seek the sinners out, he could not help reading him a little lecture.
"I don't feel as sure as you do that a sin has been committed, but admitting that a sin has been committed, I think you ought to admit that you set your face against the pleasure of these poor people too resolutely."
"Pleasure," said Father Tom. "Drinking and dancing, hugging and kissing each other about the lanes."
"You said dancing—now, I can see no harm in it."
"There is no harm in dancing, but it leads to harm. If they only went back with their parents after the dance, but they linger in the lanes."
"It was raining the other night, and I felt sorry, and I said, 'Well, the boys and girls will have to stop at home to-night, there will be no courting to-night.' If you do not let them walk about the lanes and make their own marriages, they marry for money. These walks at eventide represent all the aspiration that may come into their lives. After they get married, the work of the world grinds all the poetry out of them."
"Walking under the moon," said Father Tom, "with their arms round each other's waists, sitting for hours saying stupid things to each other—that isn't my idea of poetry. The Irish find poetry in other things except sex."
"Mankind," said Father John, "is the same all the world over. The Irish are not different from other races; do not think it. Woman represents all the poetry that the ordinary man is capable of appreciating."
"And what about ourselves?"
"We are different. We have put this interest aside. I have never regretted it, and you have not regretted it either."
"Celibacy has never been a trouble to me."
"But, Tom, your own temperament should not prevent you from sympathy with others. You are not the whole of human nature; you should try to get a little outside yourself."
"Can one ever do this?" said Father Tom.
"Well, you see what a difficulty your narrow-mindedness has brought you into."
"I know all that," said Father Tom. "It is no use insisting upon it. Now will you come with me? They must be married this morning. Will you come with me? I want you to talk to them. You are kinder than I am. You sympathise with them more than I do, and it wasn't you who refused to marry them."
Father John got out of his arm-chair and staggered about the room on his short fat legs, trying to find his hat. Father Tom said:—
"Here it is. You don't want your umbrella. There's no sign of rain."
"No," said his uncle, "but it will be very hot presently. My dear Tom, I can't walk fast."
"I am sorry, I didn't know I was walking fast."
"You are walking at the rate of four miles an hour at the least."
"I am sorry, I will walk slower."
At the cross rods inquiry was made, and the priests were told that the cabin Ned Kavanagh had taken was the last one.
"That's just another half-mile," remarked Father John.
"If we don't hasten we shall be late."
"We might rest here," said Father John, "for a moment," and he leaned against a gate. "My dear Tom, it seems to me you're agitating yourself a little unnecessarily about Ned Kavanagh and his wife—I mean the girl he is going to marry."
"I am quite sure. Ned Kavanagh brought Mary back to his cabin. There can be no doubt."
"Even so," said Father John. "He may have thought he was married."
"How could he have thought he was married unless he was drunk, and that cannot be put forward as an excuse. No, my dear uncle, you are inclined for subtleties this morning."
"He may have thought he was married. Moreover, he intended to be married, and if through forgetfulness—"
"Forgetfulness!" cried Father Maguire. "A pretty large measure of forgetfulness!"
"I shouldn't say that a mortal sin has been committed; a venial one .... If he intended to be married—"
"Oh, my dear uncle, we shall be late, we shall be late!"
Father Stafford repressed the smile that gathered in the corner of his lips, and he remembered how Father Tom had kept him out of bed till two o'clock in the morning, talking to him about St. Thomas Aquinas.
"If they're to be married to-day we must be getting on." And Father Maguire's stride grew more impatient. "I'll walk on in front."
At last he spied a woman in a field, and she told him that the married couple had gone towards the Peak. Most of them had gone for a walk, but Pat Connex was in bed, and the doctor had to be sent for.
"I've heard," said Father Tom, "of last night's drunkenness. Half a barrel of porter; there's what remains," he said, pointing to some stains on the roadway. "They were too drunk to turn off the tap."
"I heard your reverence wouldn't marry them," the woman said.
"I am going to bring them down to the church at once."
"Well, if you do," said the woman, "you won't be a penny the poorer; you will have your money at the end of the week. And how do you do, your reverence." The woman dropped a curtsey to Father Stafford. "It's seldom we see you up here."
"They have gone towards the Peak," said Father Tom, for he saw his uncle would take advantage of the occasion to gossip. "We shall catch them up there."
"I am afraid I am not equal to it, Tom. I'd like to do this for you, but I am afraid I am not equal to another half-mile up-hill."
Father Maguire strove to hypnotize his parish priest.
"Uncle John, you are called upon to make this effort. I cannot speak to these people as I should like to."
"If you spoke to them as you would like to, you would only make matters worse," said Father John.
"Very likely, I'm not in a humour to contest these things with you. But I beseech you to come with me. Come," he said, "take my arm."
They went a few hundred yards up the road, then there was another stoppage, and Father Maguire had again to exercise his power of will, and he was so successful that the last half-mile of the road was accomplished almost without a stop.
At Michael Dunne's, the priests learned that the wedding party had been there, and Father Stafford called for a lemonade.
"Don't fail me now, Uncle John. They are within a few hundred yards of us. I couldn't meet them without you. Think of it. If they were to tell me that I had refused to marry them for two pounds, my authority would be gone for ever. I should have to leave the parish."
"My dear Tom, I would do it if I could, but I am completely exhausted."
At that moment sounds of voices were heard.
"Listen to them, Uncle John." And the curate took the glass from Father John. "They are not as far as I thought, they are sitting under these trees. Come," he said.
They walked some twenty yards, till they reached a spot where the light came pouring through the young leaves, and all the brown leaves of last year were spotted with light. There were light shadows amid the rocks and pleasant mosses, and the sounds of leaves and water, and from the top of a rock Kate listened while Peter told her they would rebuild his house.
"The priests are after us," she said.
And she gave a low whistle, and the men and boys looked round, and seeing the priests coming, they dispersed, taking several paths, and none but Ned and Mary were left behind. Ned was dozing, Mary was sitting beside him fanning herself with her hat; they had not heard Kate's whistle, and they did not see the priests until they were by them.
"Now, Tom, don't lose your head, be quiet with them."
"Will you speak to them, or shall I?" said Father Tom.
In the excitement of the moment he forgot his own imperfections and desired to admonish them.
"I think you had better let me speak to them," said Father John. "You are Ned Kavanagh," he said, "and you are Mary Byrne, I believe. Now, I don't know you all, for I am getting an old man, and I don't often come up this way. But notwithstanding my age, and the heat of the day, I have come up, for I have heard that you have not acted as good Catholics should. I don't doubt for a moment that you intended to get married, but you have, I fear, been guilty of a great sin, and you've set a bad example."
"We were on our way to your reverence now," said Mary. "I mean to his reverence."
"Well," said Father Tom, "you are certainly taking your time over it, lying here half asleep under the trees."
"We hadn't the money," said Mary, "it wasn't our fault."
"Didn't I say I'd marry you for nothing?"
"But sure, your reverence, that's only a way of speaking."
"There's no use lingering here," said Father Tom. "Ned, you took the pledge the day before yesterday, and yesterday you were tipsy."
"I may have had a drop of drink in me, your reverence. Pat Connex passed me the mug of porter and I forgot myself."
"And once," said the priest, "you tasted the porter you thought you could go on taking it."
Ned did not answer, and the priests whispered together.
"We are half way now," said Father Tom, "we can get there before twelve o'clock."
"I don't think I'm equal to it," said Father John. "I really don't think—"
The sounds of wheels were heard, and a peasant driving a donkey cart came up the road.
"You see it is all up-hill," said Father John. "See how the road ascends. I never could manage it."
"The road is pretty flat at the top of the hill once you get to the top of the hill, and the cart will take you to the top."
It seemed undignified to get into the donkey cart, but his nephew's conscience was at stake, and the Vicar-General got in, and Father Tom said to the unmarried couple:—
"Now walk on in front of us, and step out as quickly as you can."
And on the way to the church Father Tom remembered that he had caught sight of Kate standing at the top of the rock talking to Peter M'Shane. In a few days they would come to him to be married, and he hoped that Peter and Kate's marriage would make amends for this miserable patchwork, for Ned Kavanagh and Mary Byrne's marriage was no better than patchwork.