out from Liscannor was a real road as far as the burying ground, but
from thence onward it had degenerated. A car, or carriage if needed,
might be brought up to the cottage door, for the ground was hard and the
way was open. But no wheels ever travelled there now. The priest, when
he would come, came on horseback, and there was a shed in which he could
tie up his nag. He himself from time to time would send up a truss of
hay for his nag's use, and would think himself cruelly used because the
cow would find her way in and eat it. No other horse ever called at the
widow's door. What slender stores were needed for her use, were all
brought on the girls' backs from Liscannor. To the north of the cottage,
along the cliff, there was no road for miles, nor was there house or
habitation. Castle Quin, in which the noble but somewhat impoverished
Quin family lived nearly throughout the year, was distant, inland, about
three miles from the cottage. Lady Mary had said in her letter to her
friend that Mrs. O'Hara was a lady;--and as Mrs. O'Hara had no other
neighbour, ranking with herself in that respect, so near her, and none
other but the Protestant clergyman's wife within six miles of her,
charity, one would have thought, might have induced some of the Quin
family to notice her. But the Quins were Protestant, and Mrs. O'Hara was
not only a Roman Catholic, but a Roman Catholic who had been brought
into the parish by the priest. No evil certainly was known of her, but
then nothing was known of her; and the Quins were a very cautious people
where religion was called in question. In the days of the famine Father
Marty and the Earl and the Protestant vicar had worked together in the
good cause;--but those days were now gone by, and the strange intimacy
had soon died away. The Earl when he met the priest would bow to him,
and the two clergymen would bow to each other;--but beyond such dumb
salutation there was no intercourse between them. It had been held
therefore to be impossible to take any notice of the priest's friends.