"I heard your reverence wouldn't marry them," the woman said.
"I am going to bring them down to the church at once."
"Well, if you do," said the woman, "you won't be a penny the poorer; you will have your money at the end of the week. And how do you do, your reverence." The woman dropped a curtsey to Father Stafford. "It's seldom we see you up here."
"They have gone towards the Peak," said Father Tom, for he saw his uncle would take advantage of the occasion to gossip. "We shall catch them up there."
"I am afraid I am not equal to it, Tom. I'd like to do this for you, but I am afraid I am not equal to another half-mile up-hill."
Father Maguire strove to hypnotize his parish priest.
"Uncle John, you are called upon to make this effort. I cannot speak to these people as I should like to."
"If you spoke to them as you would like to, you would only make matters worse," said Father John.
"Very likely, I'm not in a humour to contest these things with you. But I beseech you to come with me. Come," he said, "take my arm."
They went a few hundred yards up the road, then there was another stoppage, and Father Maguire had again to exercise his power of will, and he was so successful that the last half-mile of the road was accomplished almost without a stop.