ad scene
for a few minutes, with mingled feelings of anger, horror, and disgust.
Then, closing the door softly after him, he strode through the street,
and knocking peremptorily at all the doors, he soon had a procession of
the fathers and mothers of the children following him to the public
house. What occurred then has passed into the historical annals of
Kilronan. It is enough to say here that its good people heard that night
certain things which made their ears tingle for many a day. Mrs. Haley
came up to my house the following morning to give up her license; and
there was a general feeling abroad that every man, woman, and child in
Kilronan should become total abstainers for life.

"But that's all," said Father Letheby; "and now I am really sick of the
entire business; and to-morrow I shall write to the Bishop for my
_exeat_, and return to England or go to Australia, where I have been
promised a mission."

It was rather late, and I should have been long ago in my comfortable
bed; but the text was too good to miss.

"My dear Father Letheby," I said, "it is clear to me that you are
working not for God's honor, but for your own _kudos_."

He started at these strong words, and stared at me.

"Because," I continued calmly, "if it was the honor of God you had at
heart, this calamity, the intensity of which I have no idea of
minimizing, would have stimulated you to fresh efforts instead of
plunging you into despair. But your pride is touched and your honor is
tarnished, and you dread the criticism of men. Tell me honestly, are you
grieved because God has been offended, or because all your fine plans
have _ganged aglee?_ There! Dear St. Bonaventure, what a burden you laid
on the shoulders of poor humanity when you said, _Ama nesciri, et pro
nihilo reputari_. You did not know, in the depths of your humility, that
each of us has a pretty little gilded idol which is labelled _Self!_ And
that each of us is a fanatic in seeking to make conversions to our own
little god. And I am not at all sure but that education only helps us to
put on a little more gilding and a little more tawdry finery on our
hidden deity; and that even when we sit in judgment upon him, as we do
when preparing for Confession, it is often as a gentle and doting
mother, not as an inflexible and impartial judge. Here are you now
(turning to Father Letheby), a good, estimable, zealous, and successful
priest; and because you have been touched in a sore point