st Father MacTurnan said:--

"Maybe your Grace is looking for my letter to Rome?"

"Yes," said his Grace, "do you see it?"

"It's under your Grace's hand, those blue papers."

"Ah, yes," and his Grace leaned back in his arm-chair, leaving Father
MacTurnan standing.

"Won't you sit down, Father MacTurnan?" he said casually. "You've been
writing to Rome, I see, advocating the revocation of the decree of
celibacy. There's no doubt the emigration of Catholics is a very
serious question. So far you have got the sympathy of Rome, and, I may
say of myself; but am I to understand that it was your fear for the
religious safety of Ireland that prompted you to write this letter?"

"What other reason could there be?"

Nothing was said for a long while, and then the Bishop's meaning began
to break in his mind; his face flushed, and he grew confused. "I hope
your grace doesn't think for a moment that--"

"I only want to know if there is anyone--if your eyes ever went in a
certain direction, if your thoughts ever said, 'Well, if the decree is
revoked--'"

"No, your Grace, no. Celibacy has been no burden to me--far from it.
Sometimes I feared that it was celibacy that attracted me to the
priesthood. Celibacy was a gratification rather than a sacrifice."

"I am glad," said the Bishop, and he spoke slowly and emphatically,
"that this letter was prompted by such impersonal motives."

"Surely, your Grace, His Holiness did not suspect--"

The Bishop murmured an euphonious Italian name, and Father MacTurnan
understood that he was speaking of one of the Pope's secretaries.

"More than once," said Father MacTurnan, "I feared that if the decree
were revoked, I should not have had sufficient courage to comply with
it."

And then he told the Bishop how he had met Norah Flynn on the road. An
amused expression stole into the Bishop's face, and his voice changed.

"I presume you do not contemplate making marriage obligatory; you do
not contemplate the suspension of the faculties of those who do not
take wives?"

"It seems to me that exception should be made in favour of those in
orders, and, of course, in favour of those who have reached a certain
age like your Grace."

The Bishop coughed, and pretended to look for some paper which he had
mislaid.

"This was one of the many points that I discussed with Father Michael
Meehan."

"Oh, so you consulted Father Meehan," the Bishop said, looking up.

"He came in one day I was read