piece seemed to have been taken from the top of his bony
forehead. He was elegantly dressed in broadcloth and he wore a gold
chain and he dangled his chain from time to time. He was clearly the
well-fed, well-housed cleric who was making, in this world, an
excellent living of his advocacy for the next, and Ned wondered how it
was that the people did not perceive a discrepancy between Father
Murphy's appearance and the theories he propounded. "The idealism of
the Irish people," said the priest, "was inveterate," and he settled
himself on his short legs and began his peroration.

Ned had begun to feel that he had failed, he began to think of his
passage back to America. Father Murphy was followed by a young curate,
and the curate began by saying that Mr. Carmady would be able to defend
his theories, and that he had no concern with Mr. Carmady's theories,
though, indeed, he did not hear Mr. Carmady say anything which was
contrary to the doctrine of our "holy religion." Father Murphy had
understood Mr. Carmady's speech in quite a different light, and it
seemed to the curate that he, Father Murphy, had put a wrong
interpretation upon it; at all events he had put one which the curate
could not share. Mr. Carmady had ventured, and, he thought, very
properly, to call attention to the number of churches that were being
built and the number of people who were daily entering the orders. He
did not wish to criticise men and women who gave up their lives to God,
but Mr. Carmady was quite right when he said that without a laity there
could be no country. In Ireland the clergy were apt to forget this
simple fact that celibates do not continue the race. Mr. Carmady had
quoted from a book written by a priest in which the distinguished
author had said he looked forward to the day when Ireland would be one
vast monastery, and the curate agreed with Mr. Carmady that no more
foolish wish had ever found its way into a book. He agreed with Mr.
Carmady that a real vocation is a rare thing. No country had produced
many painters or many sculptors or many poets, and a true religious
vocation was equally rare. Mr. Carmady had pointed out that although
the population had diminished the nuns and priests had increased, and
Father Murphy must hold that Ireland must become one vast monastery,
and the laity ought to become extinct, or he must agree with Mr.
Carmady that there was a point when a too numerous clergy would
overbalance the laity.

Altoget