ey in Kilmore goes into drink,"
he added bitterly, "into blue trousers. No, I won't marry you for two
pounds. I won't marry you for less than five. I will marry you for
nothing or I will marry you for five pounds," he added, and Ned looked
round the wedding guests; he knew that none had five shillings in his
pocket, and he did not dare to take the priest at his word and let him
marry him for nothing.

Father Maguire felt that his temper had got the better of him, but it
was too late to go back on what he said. Marry them for two pounds with
the architect's letter in the pocket of his cassock! And if he were to
accept two pounds, who would pay five to be married? If he did not
stand out for his dues the marriage fee would be reduced from five
pounds to one pound ... And if he accepted Ned's two pounds his
authority would be weakened; he would not be able to get them to
subscribe to have the church made safe. On the whole he thought he had
done right, and his servant was of the same opinion.

"They'd have the cassock off your back, your reverence, if they could
get it."

"And the architect writing to me that the walls can't be made safe
under two hundred pounds, and the whole lot of them not earning less
than thirty shillings a week, and they can't pay the priest five pounds
for marrying them."

In the course of the day he went to Dublin to see the architect; and
next morning it occurred to him that he might have to go to America to
get the money to build a new church, and as he sat thinking the door
was opened and the servant said that Biddy M'Hale wanted to see his
reverence.

She came in curtseying, and before saying a word she took ten
sovereigns out of her pocket and put them upon the table. The priest
thought she had heard of the architect's report, and he said:--

"Now, Biddy, I am glad to see you. I suppose you have brought me this
for my church. You have heard of the money it will cost to make the
walls safe."

"No, your reverence, I did not hear any more than that there were
cracks in the walls."

"But you have brought me this money to have the cracks mended?"

"Well, no, your reverence. I have been thinking a long time of doing
something for the church, and I thought I should like to have a window
put up in the church with coloured glass in it."

Father Maguire was touched by Biddy's desire to do something for the
church, and he thought he would have no difficulty in persuading her.
He could get t