A poor woman who was at the point of death had been induced by two good
old Catholic spinsters who lived near her to send for the priest to
reconcile her to the Church. She was the offspring of a mixed
marriage; her mother--the Catholic party--had died when the child was
quite young, and the father had at once taken the girl to kirk with
him. She had once been to Confession, but had received no other
Sacrament except Baptism. When she had grown to womanhood, she married
a Presbyterian, and all her family had been brought up in that
religion. Yet the grace of her Baptism seemed to cling to her. After
her husband's death she would now and again attend at Mass, driven the
six miles by her Protestant son; but she was not known to the priest,
and so she remained outside the pale. Her intimacy with Jeannie and
Katie Ann McGruer was the means of keeping her in touch with Catholic
matters, and eventually resulted in her reconciliation.

This was not accomplished, however, without a stiff skirmish between
the old priest and the members of her family--not to mention the
minister of their particular kirk.

In compliance with the summons conveyed by one of the McGruers (Bell
spoke of them as "guid Catholic lassies," but in answer to my query
explained that Katie Ann, the younger sister, would be "risin'
sixty"!), Mr. McGillivray betook himself to the house of the invalid.
The door was opened by her eldest son, Adam Fordyce--a burly,
black-browed, bearded man of forty. He had charge of the roads in the
district, so that he and the priest were on speaking terms, at least.

Adam held the door in one hand and the door-post in the other, and his
portly figure filled up the opening fairly well.