perfect good nature death many things to us he said and he lifted his head to listen for the silence in the house and about the house reminded him of the silence of the dead and he began to consider what his own span of life might be he might live as long as father peter father peter was fifty five when he died if so twenty one years of existence by the lake s side awaited him and these years seemed to him empty like a desert � yes and as twenty one years wondering what became of her and every evening like this evening � the same loneliness the lake he sat watching the hands of his clock and a peaceful meditation about a certain that unfortunately burst its was interrupted by a sudden thought whence the thought had come he could not tell nor what had put it into his head but it had occurred to him suddenly that if father peter had lived a few weeks longer he would have found means of exchanging rose for another more suitable to the of the parish if father peter had lived he would have done her a grievous wrong he wouldn t have allowed her to suffer but he would have done her a wrong all the same and it were better that a man should meet his death than he should do a wrong to another but he wasn t contemplating his own death nor rose s when this solution of the difficulty occurred to him our inherent is so great that it is difficult to know what one does think he surely did not think it well that father peter had died his friend his benefactor the man in whose house he was living of course not then it was strange he could not keep the thought out of his mind that father peter s death had saved the parish from a great scandal for if rose had been dismissed he might have found himself obliged to leave the parish again he turned on himself and asked how such thoughts could come into his mind true the coming of a thought into the consciousness is often unexpected but if the thought were not latent in the mind it would not arise out of the mind and if father peter knew the base thoughts he indulged in � yes indulged in for he the lake could not put them quite out of his mind � he very much feared the gift of all this furniture might � no he was judging father peter ill father peter was incapable of a mean regret but who was he he d like to be told that he should set himself up as father peter s judge the evil he had foreseen had happened if father peter felt that rose was not the kind of the parish required should he not send her away the need of the parish of the many before the one moreover father peter was under no obligation whatsoever to rose she had been sent down by the school board subject to his approval but my case is quite different i chose her i decided that she was to remain and he asked himself if his decision had come about gradually no he had never hesitated he had dismissed father peter s prejudices as unworthy the church needed some good music but had he thought of the church hardly at all his first consideration had been his personal pleasure and he had wished that the best choir in the should be in his church rose had enabled him to gratify his vanity he had made her his friend he had taken pleasure in her smiles and in the fact that he had only to express a desire for it to be fulfilled after school tired though she might be she was always willing to meet him in the church for choir practice she would herself propose to the altar for feast days how many times had they walked round the garden together gathering flowers for the altar t and it was strange that she could the lake so well without knowing much about flowers or having much natural taste for flowers feeling he was doing her an injustice he admitted that she had made much progress under his guidance in her knowledge of flowers but how did he treat her in the end despite all her and getting up from his chair he walked across the room and when he turned he stopped and drew his hand across his eyes the clock struck twelve i shall be awake at dawn and with all this story running in my head and he paused at his bedroom door but having suffered in thought he was spared the and that morning he lay awake hardly annoyed at all by the whistling going over the mistakes he had made � a little surprised however that the remembrance of them did not cause him more pain at last he fell into profound sleep and when his housekeeper knocked at his door and he heard her saying that it was past eight he leaped out of bed cheerily and sang a of song as he shaved himself he his chin however for he could not keep his attention fixed on his work but must peep over the top of the glass whence he could see his garden and think how next year he would contrive a better arrangement of color it was difficult to stop the bleeding and he knew that would at the state he left the in he should not have used his bath but these were minor matters he was happier than he had been for many a day the sight of on his breakfast table the lake delighted him and the man who had driven ten miles to see him yesterday called and he shared his with him they 