give the man’s name, she was too clever for that).  She would only say that Nora had been seen on the hillside walking in lonely places with a man.  Truly a detestable woman!  His thoughts strayed from her for a moment, for it gave him pleasure to recollect that he had defended his schoolmistress.  Didn’t he say:  ’Now, then, Mrs. O’Mara, if you have anything definite to say, say it, but I won’t listen to vague charges.’  ‘Charges—­who is making charges?’ she asked, and he had unfortunately called her a liar.  In the middle of the row she dropped a phrase:  ‘Anyhow, her appearance is against her.’  And it was true that Nora Glynn’s appearance had changed in the last few months.  Seeing that her words had a certain effect, Mrs. O’Mara quieted down; and while he stood wondering if it could possibly be true that Nora had deceived them, that she had been living in sin all these months, he suddenly heard Mrs. O’Mara saying that he was lacking in experience—­which was quite true, but her way of saying it had roused the devil in him.  Who was she that she should come telling him that he lacked experience?  To be sure, he wasn’t an old midwife, and that’s what Mrs. O’Mara looked like, sitting before him.

He had lost control of himself, saying, ’Now, will you get out of this house, you old scandalmonger, or I’ll take you by the shoulders and put you out!’ And he had thrown the front-door open.  What a look she gave him as she passed out!  At that moment the clock struck three and he remembered suddenly that the children were coming out of school at that moment.  It would have been better if he had waited.  But he couldn’t wait:  he’d have gone mad if he had waited; and he recalled how he had jumped into the road, squeezed through the stile, and run across the field.  ‘Why all this hurry?’ he had asked himself.

She was locking up the desks; the children went by him, curtseying, and he had to wait till the last one was past the door.  Nora must have guessed his errand, for her face noticeably hardened.  ’I’ve seen Mrs. O’Mara,’ he blurted out, ’and she tells me that you’ve been seen walking with some man on the hillside in lonely places....  Don’t deny it if it is true.’  ‘I’m not going to deny anything that is true.’  How brave she was!  Her courage attracted him and softened his heart.  But everything was true, alas!  Everything.  She told him that her plans were to steal out of the parish without saying a word to anyone, for she was determined not to disgrace him or the parish.  She was thinking of him in all her trouble, and everything might have ended well if he had not asked her who the man was.  She would not say, nor give any reasons why she wouldn’t do so.  Only this, that if the man had deserted her she didn’t want anybody to bring him back, if he could be brought back; if the man were dead it were better to say nothing about him.  ’But if it were his fault?’ ‘I don’t see that that would make any difference.’