you should forget the wrong you did me. Put the whole thing, and me,
out of your mind; and now, good-bye, Father Gogarty.

'NORA GLYNN.'


'Good heavens! how she hates me, and she'll hate me till her dying day.
She'll never forget. And this is the end of it, a bitter, unforgiving
letter.' He sat down to think, and it seemed to him that she wouldn't
have written this letter if she had known the agony of mind he had been
through. But of this he wasn't sure. No, no; he could not believe her
spiteful. And he walked up and down the room, trying to quell the
bitterness rising up within him. No other priest would have taken the
trouble; they would have just forgotten all about it, and gone about
congratulating themselves on their wise administration. But he had acted
rightly, Father O'Grady had approved of what he had done; and this was
his reward. She'll never come back, and will never forgive him; and ever
since writing to her he had indulged in dreams of her return to Ireland,
thinking how pleasant it would be to go down to the lake in the
mornings, and stand at the end of the sandy spit looking across the lake
towards Tinnick, full of the thought that she was there with his sisters
earning her living. She wouldn't be in his parish, but they'd have been
friends, neighbours, and he'd have accepted the loss of his organist as
his punishment. Eva Maguire was no good; there would never be any music
worth listening to in his parish again. Such sternness as her letter
betrayed was not characteristic of her; she didn't understand, and
never would. Catherine's step awoke him; the awaking was painful, and he
couldn't collect his thoughts enough to answer Catherine; and feeling
that he must appear to her daft, he tried to speak, but his speech was
only babble.