me women among them; they were kept back by the men, and
they quarrelled among themselves, disputing who should talk to me; they
had seen no one except each other for a long time, and I feared their
interest in the looms was a conversational interest--it amused them to
talk.

The priest brought a bundle of clothes out of the house, and when the
distribution was finished, I asked him to come for a walk up the hill
and show me the playhouse.

Again he hesitated, and I said, "You must come, Father MacTurnan, for a
walk. You must forget the misfortunes of those people for a while." He
yielded, and we spoke of the excellence of the road, and he told me
that when he had conceived the idea of a playhouse he had arranged with
the inspector that the road should go to the top of the hill.

"It will not make much difference," he said, "for if there is ever a
harbour made the road can be carried over the hill right down to the
sea, and the hill, as you say, is not a very steep one."

"There must be a fine view from the hill-top, and no doubt you often go
there to read your breviary."

"During the building of the playhouse I often used to be up here, and
during the rehearsals I was here every day."

I noticed that the tone of his voice never altered.

A grey, shallow sea had slowly eaten away the rotten land, and the
embay was formed by two low headlands hardly showing above the water at
high tide.

"I thought once," said the priest, "that if the play were a great
success a line of flat-bottomed steamers might be built."

"Pleasant dreams," I said to myself, "and he sitting here in the quiet
evenings, reading his breviary, dreaming of a line of steamships
crowded with visitors. He has been reading about the Oberammergau
performances." And I spoke about these performances, agreeing with him
that no one would have dared to predict that visitors would come from
all sides of Europe to see a few peasants performing a miracle play in
the Tyrol.

"Come," I said, "into the playhouse. Let me see how you built it."

The building was finished! The walls and the roof were finished, and a
stage had been erected at the end of the building. But half a wall and
some of the roof had fallen upon it, and the rubble had not been
cleared away.

"It would not cost many pounds to repair the damage," I said. "And
having gone so far, you should give the play a chance."

I was anxious to hear if he had discovered any aptitude for acting
amon