III

Next morning, as Father Maguire was leaving the house, his servant
handed him a letter. It was from an architect who had been down to
examine the walls of the church. The envelope that Father Maguire
was tearing open contained his report, and Father Maguire read
that it would require two hundred pounds to make the walls secure.
Father Maguire was going round to the church to marry Mary Byrne
and Ned Kavanagh, and he continued to read the report until he
arrived at the church. The wedding party was waiting, but the
architect's report was much more important than a wedding, and he
wandered round the old walls examining the cracks as he went. He
could see they were crumbling, and he believed the architect was
right, and that it would be better to build a new church. But to
build a new church three or four thousand pounds would be
required, and the architect might as well suggest that he should
collect three or four millions.

And Ned and Mary noticed the dark look between the priest's eyes
as he came out of the sacristy, and Ned regretted that his
reverence should be out of his humour that morning, for he had
spent three out of the five pounds he had saved to pay the priest
for marrying him. He had cherished hopes that the priest would
understand that he had had to buy some new clothes, but the priest
looked so cross that it was with difficulty he summoned courage to
tell him that he had only two pounds left.

"I want two hundred pounds to make the walls of the church safe.