’I am, sir, ’Very sincerely yours, ‘MICHAEL O’GRADY.’

’All’s well that ends well.  So that’s how he views it!  A different point of view.’  And feeling that he was betraying himself to Catherine, he put both letters into his pocket and went out of the house.  But he had not gone many yards when he met a parishioner with a long story to tell, happily not a sick call, only a dispute about land.  So he invented an excuse postponing his intervention until the morrow, and when he returned home tired with roaming, he stopped on his door-step.  ’The matter is over now, her letter is final,’ he said.  But he awoke in a different mood next morning; everything appeared to him in a different light, and he wondered, surprised to find that he could forget so easily; and taking her letter out of his pocket, he read it again.  ’It’s a hard letter, but she’s a wise woman.  Much better for us both to forget each other.  “Good-bye, Father Gogarty,” she said; “Good-bye, Nora Glynn,” say I.’  And he walked about his garden tending his flowers, wondering at his light-heartedness.

She thought of her own interests, and would get on very well in London, and Father O’Grady had been lucky too.  Nora was an excellent organist.  But if he went to London he would meet her.  A meeting could hardly be avoided—­and after that letter!  Perhaps it would be wiser if he didn’t go to London.  What excuse?  O’Grady would write again.  He had been so kind.  In any case he must answer his letter, and that was vexatious.  But was he obliged to answer it?  O’Grady wouldn’t misunderstand his silence.  But there had been misunderstandings enough; and before he had walked the garden’s length half a dozen conclusive reasons for writing occurred to him.  First of all Father O’Grady’s kindness in writing to ask him to stay with him, added to which the fact that Nora would, of course, tell Father O’Grady she had been invited to teach in the convent; her vanity would certainly urge her to do this, and Heaven only knows what account she would give of his proposal.  There would be his letter, but she mightn’t show it.  So perhaps on the whole it would be better that he should write telling O’Grady what had happened.  And after his dinner as he sat thinking, a letter came into his mind; the first sentences formulated themselves so suddenly that he was compelled to go to his writing-table.

From Father Oliver Gogarty to Father O’Grady.

’GARRANARD, BOHOLA,

’June 12, 19—.

’DEAR FATHER O’GRADY,

’I enclose a letter which I received three days ago from Miss Nora Glynn, and I think you will agree with me that the letter is a harsh one, and that, all things considered, it would have been better if she had stinted herself to saying that I had committed an error of judgment which she forgave.  She did not, however, choose to do this.  As regards my sister’s invitation to her to come over here to teach, she was, of course, quite right to consider