“Does he mean a temperance pledge?” said Mr. Pennefather.
“I do,” said Joseph Antony. “Are you a member of the Total Abstinence Sodality?”
“I take a little whisky after my work on Sunday evenings,” said Mr. Pennefather, “and, of course, when I’m dining out I——”
“That’ll do,” said Joseph Antony. “A man that takes it one time will take it another. I suppose now you’re not any ways connected with the police?”
“He is not,” said Priscilla. “Can’t you see he’s a clergyman?”
“It’s beyond me,” said Joseph Antony, “what brings you to Inishbawn at all.”
“The way things are with you at present,” said Priscilla, “it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have a clergyman staying with you on the island. It would look respectable.”
“It would, of course,” said Joseph Antony.
“If any question ever came to be asked,” said Priscilla, “about what’s going on here, it would be a grand thing for you to be able to say that you had the Rev. Barnabas Pennefather stopping along with you.”
“It would surely,” said Joseph Antony.