that gathered in the corner of his
lips, and he remembered how Father Tom had kept him out of bed till two
o'clock in the morning, talking to him about St. Thomas Aquinas.

"If they're to be married to-day we must be getting on." And Father
Maguire's stride grew more impatient. "I'll walk on in front."

At last he spied a woman in a field, and she told him that the married
couple had gone towards the Peak. Most of them had gone for a walk, but
Pat Connex was in bed, and the doctor had to be sent for.

"I've heard," said Father Tom, "of last night's drunkenness. Half a
barrel of porter; there's what remains," he said, pointing to some
stains on the roadway. "They were too drunk to turn off the tap."

"I heard your reverence wouldn't marry them," the woman said.

"I am going to bring them down to the church at once."

"Well, if you do," said the woman, "you won't be a penny the poorer;
you will have your money at the end of the week. And how do you do,
your reverence." The woman dropped a curtsey to Father Stafford. "It's
seldom we see you up here."

"They have gone towards the Peak," said Father Tom, for he saw his
uncle would take advantage of the occasion to gossip. "We shall catch
them up there."

"I am afraid I am not equal to it, Tom. I'd like to do this for you,
but I am afraid I am not equal to another half-mile up-hill."

Father Maguire strove to hypnotize his parish priest.

"Uncle John, you are called upon to make this effort. I cannot speak to
these people as I should like to."

"If you spoke to them as you would like to, you would only make matters
worse," said Father John.

"Very likely, I'm not in a humour to contest these things with you. But
I beseech you to come with me. Come," he said, "take my arm."

They went a few hundred yards up the road, then there was another
stoppage, and Father Maguire had again to exercise his power of will,
and he was so successful that the last half-mile of the road was
accomplished almost without a stop.

At Michael Dunne's, the priests learned that the wedding party had been
there, and Father Stafford called for a lemonade.

"Don't fail me now, Uncle John. They are within a few hundred yards of
us. I couldn't meet them without you. Think of it. If they were to tell
me that I had refused to marry them for two pounds, my authority would
be gone for ever. I should have to leave the parish."

"My dear Tom, I would do it if I could, but I am completely exhaus