in the front room, so ye'll stay here please."

Mark stepped into the little dining room, where the table was already
set, and waited for the priest. Ann went back to her cooking. Mark
could hear her rattling the dishes and pans, all the while issuing
orders to her assistants for the day. Ann was quite the most important
personage in the parish on this occasion and had to show it. It was
seldom she had such authority over others. Why not make the most of it?

There was only a folding door between the dining room where Mark waited
and, the room in which the Bishop sat Mark heard the Bishop arise
impatiently from his chair and pace the room, a fact which caused him
no little wonder. The Bishop had not impressed him as a man of nervous
temperament. Mark now heard him sit down again, crunching the springs
of the chair, and again jump up, to continue his nervous pacing. Then
the door from the hallway into the parlor opened and Mark heard the
Bishop's voice:

"Is she the woman?"

A young voice, which Mark was sure belonged to the secretary, answered:

"I am sorry to say, Bishop, that she is."

"My God!" said the Bishop. There was deep distress in his tones.
"Father, are you perfectly sure?"

"I could not be mistaken, Bishop. I stayed in the sacristy until all
had left the church except her attendant and herself. She was crying,
and she threw back the veil to use her handkerchief. Then I saw her