‘You’re very snug here, smoking your pipe under your apple-trees.’

‘Yes, in a way; but I think I was happier where you are.’

‘The past is always pleasant to look upon.’

‘You think so?’

The priests walked to the end of the garden, and, leaning on the wicket, Father Moran said: 

’We’ve had queer weather lately—­dull heavy weather.  See how low the swallows are flying.  When I came up the drive, the gravel space in front of the house was covered with them, the old birds feeding the young ones.’

’And you were noticing these things, and believing that Providence had sent you here to bid me good-bye.’

’Isn’t it when the nerves are on a stretch that we notice little things that don’t concern us at all?’

’Yes, Moran; you are right.  I’ve never known you as wise as you are this evening.’

Catherine appeared in the kitchen door.  She had come to tell them their supper was ready.  During the meal the conversation turned on the roofing of the abbey and the price of timber, and when the tablecloth had been removed the conversation swayed between the price of building materials and the Archbishop’s fear lest he should meet a violent death, as it had been prophesied if he allowed a roof to be put upon Kilronan.

’You know I don’t altogether blame him, and I don’t think anyone does at the bottom of his heart, for what has been foretold generally comes to pass sooner or later.’

’The Archbishop is a good Catholic who believes in everything the Church teaches—­in the Divinity of our Lord, the Immaculate Conception, and the Pope’s indulgences.  And why should he be disbelieving in that which has been prophesied for generations about the Abbot of Kilronan?’

‘Don’t you believe in these things?’

’Does anyone know exactly what he believes?  Does the Archbishop really believe every day of the year and every hour of every day that the Abbot of Kilronan will be slain on the highroad when a De Stanton is again Abbot?’ Father Oliver was thinking of the slip of the tongue he had been guilty of before supper, when he said that the Church looks upon woman as the real danger, because she is the life of the world.  He shouldn’t have made that remark, for it might be remembered against him, and he fell to thinking of something to say that would explain it away.

’Well, Moran, we’ve had a pleasant evening; we’ve talked a good deal, and you’ve said many pleasant things and many wise ones.  We’ve never had a talk that I enjoyed more, and I shall not forget it easily.’

‘How is that?’

’Didn’t you say that it isn’t drink that destroys a man’s faith, but woman?  And you said rightly, for woman is life.’

’I was just about to ask you what you meant, when Catherine came in and interrupted us.’

’Love of woman means estrangement from the Church, because you have to protect her and her children.’