red an anchorite as ever said
mass or brewed a contemplative bowl of punch. If he refused to go down
to the Mills, he would not have been comfortable again that night, nor
indeed for a week to come. So, with a sigh, he made up his mind, got
quietly into his surtout and mufflers which hung on the peg behind the
hall-door, clapped on his hat, grasped his stout oak stick, and telling
his housekeeper to let them know, in case his guests should miss him,
that he was obliged to go out for ten minutes or so on parish business,
forth sallied the stout priest, with no great appetite for
knight-errantry, but still anxious to rescue, if so it might be, the
distressed princess, begirt with giants and enchanters, at the Mills.

At the Salmon House he enlisted the stalworth Paddy Moran, with the
information conveyed to that surprised reveller, that he was to sleep at
'Mrs. Nutter's house' that night; and so, at a brisk pace, the clerical
knight, his squire, and demoiselle-errant, proceeded to the Mills.

CHAPTER LXXVIII.

IN WHICH, WHILE THE HARMONY CONTINUES IN FATHER ROACH'S FRONT PARLOUR, A
FEW DISCORDS ARE INTRODUCED ELSEWHERE; AND DOCTOR TOOLE ARRIVES IN THE
MORNING WITH A MARVELLOUS BUDGET OF NEWS.

The good people who had established themselves in poor Nutter's domicile
did not appear at all disconcerted by the priest's summons. His knock at
the hall-door was attended to with the most consummate assurance by
M. M.'s maid, just as if the premises had belonged to her mistress all
her days.

Between this hussy and his reverence, who was in no mood to be trifled
with, there occurred in the hall some very pretty sparring, which ended
by his being ushered into the parlour, where sat Mistress Matchwell and
Dirty Davy, the 'tea-things' on the table, and an odour more potent than
that of the Chinese aroma circulating agreeably through the chamber.

I need not report the dialogue of the parties, showing how the honest
priest maintained, under sore trial, his character for politeness while
addressing a lady, and how he indemnified himself in the style in which
he 'discoorsed' the attorney; how his language fluctuated between the
persuasively religious and the horribly profane; and how, at one crisis
in the conversation, although he had self-command enough to bow to the
matron, he was on the point of cracking the lawyer's crown with the fine
specimen of Irish oak which he carried in his hand, and, in fact,
nothing but his pr