flesh never thought of him as a possible but there may be that danger too i still think father o that you might have warned of her danger forgive me i m sure you did all that was necessary you do forgive me the men s eyes met and father o said as if he wished to change the subject you were bom at were you not yes i was bom in father repeated mechanically almost as if he had not heard the question and your sisters are yes yes tell me how it all came about how all what came about father asked for he was a little and troubled in his mind and was therefore easily led to relate the story of the shop in his very early religious and how he remembered himself always as a pious lad on looking into the years gone by he said that he saw himself more often than not by his bedside in innocent little prayers and afterwards at school he had been considered a pious lad he on telling his story almost unconsciously getting more thoughtful as he advanced into it relating carefully the absurd episode of the in which to the piety of the old time he chose castle island as a suitable spot for him to live in father o listened seriously moved by the story and father continued it telling how coming to see the priest in him gave up her room to him as soon as their cousin the bishop was consulted and it was at this point oi the narrative that father o put a question was no attempt he asked made to marry you to some girl with a big fortune and father told of his liking for mc and of his aversion for marriage that aversion might be too strong a word indifference would more represent him i wasn t interested in nor in any woman as far as i can remember until this unfortunate conduct of mine awakened an interest in and it would be strange indeed if it hadn t awakened an interest in me he muttered to himself father o suppressed the words that rose up in his mind now i m beginning to understand and father continued like one talking to himself i m � that i was singularly free from all of the e especially those represented by i was ordained early when i was twenty two and as soon as i began to hear the things that surprised me the most were the stories relating to those that men experience for women and women for men � which sometimes are so intense that if the sufferer cannot obtain relief by the acquiescence of the object of their affections he if it be he she if it be she cannot refrain from suicide there have been cases of men and women going mad because their love was not and i used to listen to these stories unable to understand bored by the relation if father had looked up at that moment father o s eyes would have told him that he had revealed himself and that perhaps father o now knew more about him than he knew himself but without withdrawing his eyes from the fire he continued talking till s step was heard outside she s coming to lay the cloth for our tea father said and father o answered i shall be glad of a cup of tea must you really go after tea father asked and again he begged father o to stay for dinner but father o as if he felt that the object of his visit had been accomplished spoke of the drive back to and of the convenience of the branch line of railway it was a convenience certainly but it was also an inconvenience owing to the fact that the trains run from sometimes missed the mail train and this led father to speak of the work he was striving to accomplish the of abbey and many other things and the time passed without their feeling it till the car came round to take father o away he goes as a dream goes father said and a few minutes afterwards he was sitting alone by his turf fire asking himself in what dreams differed from reality for like a dream father o had come and he had gone never to return but does anything return he asked himself and he looked round his room wondering why the chairs and tables did not speak to him and why life was not different from what it was he could hear at work in the kitchen preparing his dinner she would bring it to him as she had done yesterday he would eat it he would sit up smoking his pipe for a while and about eleven o clock go to his bed he would lie down in it and rise and say mass and see his all these things he had done many times before and he would go on doing them till the day of his death � until the day of my death he repeated never seeing her again never seeing him why did he come here and he was surprised that he could find no answer to any of the questions that he put to himself chap viii nothing will happen again in my nothing of any interest this is the end and if i did go to london of what should i speak to him it will be better to try to forget it all and return if i can to the man i was before i knew her and he stood stock still thinking that without this memory he would not be himself father o s coming had been a pleasure to him for they had talked together he had confessed to him had been at that moment he caught sight of a newspaper upon his table illustrated 