father letheby commenced sooner than i had expected.
i think it was about nine or ten days after his formal instalment in his new house, just as i was reading after breakfast the freeman's journal of two days past, the door of my parlor was suddenly flung open, a bunch of keys was thrown angrily on the table, and a voice (which i recognized as that of mrs. darcy, the chapel woman), strained to the highest tension of indignation, shouted:—
"there! and may there be no child to pray over my grave if ever i touch them again! wisha! where in the world did you get him? or where did he come from, at all, at all? the son of a jook! the son of a draper over there at kilkeel. didn't mrs. morarty tell me how she sowld socks to his ould father? an' he comes here complaining of dacent people! 'dirt,' sez he. 'where?' sez i. 'there,' sez he. 'where?' sez i. i came of as dacent people as him. wondher you never complained. but you're too aisy. you always allow these galivanters of curates to crow over you. but i tell you i won't stand it. if i had to beg my bread from house to house, i won't stand being told i'm dirty. why, the ladies of the great house said they could see their faces in the candlesticks; and didn't the bishop say 't was the natest vestry in the diocese? and this new cojutor with his gran' accent, which no one can understand, and his gran' furniture, and his whipster of a servant, begor, no one can stand him. we must all clear out. and, after me eighteen years, scrubbing, and washing, and ironing, wid me two little orphans, which that blackguard, jem darcy (the lord have mercy on his sowl!) left me, must go to foreign countries to airn me bread, because i'm not good enough for his reverence. well, 't is you'll be sorry. but, if you wint down on your two binded knees and said: 'mrs. darcy, i deplore you to take up them kays and go back to your juties,' i wouldn't! no! get some whipster that will suit his reverence. mary darcy isn't good enough."
she left the room, only to return. she spoke with forced calmness.
"de thrifle of money you owe me, yer reverence, ye can sind it down to the house before i start for america. and dere's two glasses of althar wine in the bottle, and half a pound of candles."
she went out again, but returned immediately.
"the surplus is over at nell o'brien's washing, and the black vestment is over at tom carmody's since the last station. the kay of the safe is under the door of the linny[1] to de left, and the chalice is in the basket, wrapped in the handkercher. and, if you don't mind giving me a charackter, perhaps, hannah will take it down in the evening."
she went out again; but kept her hand on the door.
"good by, your reverence, and god bless you! sure, thin, you never said a hard word to a poor woman." then there was the sound of falling tears.
to all this tremendous philippic i never replied. i never do reply to a woman until i have my hand on the door handle and my finger on the key. i looked steadily at the column of stocks and shares on the paper, though i never read a word.
"this is rather a bad mess," said i. "he is coming out too strong."
the minute particulars i had from hannah soon after. hannah and mrs. darcy are not friends. two such village potentates could not be friends any more than two poets, or two critics, or two philosophers. as a rule, hannah rather looked down on the chapel woman, and generally addressed her with studied politeness. "how are you to-day, mrs. darcy?" or more frequently, "good morning, mrs. darcy." on the other hand, mary darcy, as arbitress at stations, wakes, and weddings, had a wide influence in the parish, and i fear used to speak contemptuously sometimes of my housekeeper. but now there was what the newspapers call a dual alliance against the newcomers, and a stern determination that any attempt at superiority should be repressed with a firm hand, and to mrs. darcy's lot it fell to bear the martyrdom of high principle and to fire the first shot, that should be also the final one. and so it was, but not in the way mrs. darcy anticipated.
it would appear, then, that father letheby had visited the sacristy, and taken a most minute inventory of its treasures, and had, with all the zeal of a new reformer, found matters in a very bad state. now, he was not one to smile benignantly at such irregularities and then throw the burden of correcting them on his pastor. he was outspoken and honest. he tore open drawers, and drew out their slimy, mildewed contents, sniffed ominously at the stuffy atmosphere, flung aside with gestures of contempt some of mrs. darcy's dearest treasures, such as a magnificent reredos of blue paper with gold stars; held up gingerly, and with curled lip, corporals and purificators, and wound up the awful inspection with the sentence:—
"i never saw such abominable filth in my life."
now, you may accuse us in ireland of anything you please from coining to parricide, but if you don't want to see blazing eyes and hear vigorous language don't say, dirt. mrs. darcy bore the fierce scrutiny of her menage without shrinking, but when he mentioned the ugly word, all her fury shot forth, and it was all the more terrible, because veiled under a show of studied politeness.
"dirt!" she said. "i'd be plazed to see your reverence show one speck of dirt in the place."
"good heavens, woman!" he said, "what do you mean? there is dirt everywhere, in the air, under my feet, in the grate, on the altar. it would take the atlantic to purify the place."
"you're the first gentleman that ever complained of the place," said mrs. darcy. "of coorse, there aren't carpets, and bearskins, and cowhides, which are now the fashion, i believe. an' dere isn't a looking-glass, nor a pianney; but would your reverence again show me the dirt. a poor woman's charackter is all she has."
"i didn't mean to impute anything to your character," he said, mildly, "but if you can't see that this place is frightfully dirty, i suppose i can't prove it. look at that!"
he pointed to a grewsome heap of cinders, half-burnt papers, brown ashes, etc., that choked up the grate.
"yerra. glory be to god!" said mrs. darcy, appealing to an imaginary audience, "he calls the sweepings of the altar, and the clane ashes, dirt. yerra, what next?"
"this next," he said, determinedly; "come here." he took her out and pointed to the altar cloth. it was wrinkled and grimy, god forgive me! and there were stars of all sizes and colors darkening it.
"isn't that a disgrace to the church?" he said, sternly.
"i see no disgrace in it," said mrs. darcy. "it was washed and made up last christmas, and is as clane to-day as the day it came from the mangle."
"do you call that clean?" he shouted, pointing to the drippings of the candles.
"yerra, what harm is that," said she, "a bit of blessed wax that fell from the candles? sure, 't is of that they make the agnus deis."
"you're perfectly incorrigible," he said. "i'll report the whole wretched business to the parish priest, and let him deal with you."
"begor you may," said she, "but i'll have my story first."
and so she had. father letheby gave me his version afterwards. he did so with the utmost delicacy, for it was all an indirect indictment of my own slovenliness and sinful carelessness. i listened with shamed face and bent head? and determined to let him have his way. i knew that mrs. darcy would not leave for america just yet.
but what was my surprise on the following sunday, when, on entering the sacristy to prepare for mass, i slid along a polished floor, and but for the wall would probably have left a vacancy at kilronan to some expectant curate. the floor glinted and shone with wax; and there were dainty bits of fibre matting here and there. the grate was black-leaded, and there was a wonderful firescreen with an alpine landscape. the clock was clicking steadily, as if time had not stood still for us all for many years: and there were my little altar boys in snowy surplices as neat as the acolytes that proffered soap and water to the archbishop of rheims, when he called for bell and book in the famous legend.
but oh! my anguish when i drew a stiff white amice over my head, instead of the dear old limp and wrinkled one i was used to; and when i feebly tried to push my hands through the lace meshes of an alb, that would stand with stiffness and pride, if i placed it on the floor. i would gladly have called for my old garment; but i knew that i too had to undergo the process of the new reformation; and, with much agony, i desisted. but i drew the line at a biretta which cut my temples with its angles, and i called out:—
"mrs. darcy."
a young woman, with her hair all tidied up, and with a white apron, laced at the edges, and pinned to her breast, came out from a recess. she was smiling bashfully, and appeared as if she would like to run away and hide somewhere.
"mrs. darcy," i called again.
the young woman smiled more deeply, and said with a kind of smirk:—
"here i am, your reverence!"
it is fortunate for me that i have acquired, after long practice, the virtue of silence; for when i recognized the voice of my old friend, i was thunderstruck. i'm sure i would have said something very emphatic, but my habits restrained me. but i regret to say it was all a source of distraction to me in the celebration of the divine mysteries, and during the day. what had occurred? i was dying to know; but it would not be consistent with the dignity of my position to ask. to this day, i congratulate myself on my reticence; for, who could help asking how? when face to face with a miracle. it was some days before i discovered the secret of the magical transformation.
it would appear, then, that the late lamented jem darcy, when he departed to his reward, left his poor widow two charges in the shape of children. what do i say? charges? no. she would scornfully repudiate the word. for was not patsey, the baby of eighteen months, "the apple of her eye," and jemmy, the little hunchback of six summers, "the core of her heart"? for them she labored and toiled, and "moiled," as she used to say; and worked herself into oil to get them bread, and a pink ribbon for the baby's shoulder knot, and a navy cap, with "hero" in gold letters for jemmy. and across her troubled life, full of cares and apprehensions, poor soul! was there any gleam of sunshine, except that which was reflected in the iris of her baby's eyes; or that which dappled the mud floor of her cabin, when jemmy lay there and played hide and seek with the gossamer threads that shone through the chink in the half-door! ah me! it is easy to lecture the poor, and complain of their horrid ways; but the love such as no man hath gilds and enamels most of the crooked and grimy things that disfigure their poor lives in the eyes of the fastidious; and perhaps makes the angels of him, before whose face the stars are not spotless, turn from the cold perfection of the mansion and the castle to gaze lovingly on the squalid lowliness of the hamlet and the cabin. well. on the morning that mrs. darcy gave me formal notice of her relinquishment of the solemn office she held, she bent her steps homeward with a heavy heart. she had done her duty, like all the other great people who have done disagreeable things; but it brought no consolation. and she had flung behind her her little cabin, and all the sweet associations connected therewith, and the pomp and pride of power, when she officiated at the public offices of the church, and every one knew her to be indispensable. for who could tell the name of a defaulter at the station, but mrs. darcy? and who arranged the screaming baby in the clumsy arms of a young godmother, but mrs. darcy? and who could lay out a corpse like mrs. darcy? and who but mrs. darcy found the ring when the confused and blushing bridegroom fumbled in every pocket at the altar, and the priest looked angry, and the bride ashamed?
and then her pride in the church! how wonderful were her designs in holly and ivy at christmas! what fantasies she wove out of a rather limited imagination! what art fancies, that would shame william morris, poet and socialist, did she conceive and execute in the month of may for the lady altar! didn't miss campion say that she was a genius, but undeveloped? didn't miss campion's friend from dublin declare that there was nothing like it in gardiner street? and when her time would be spent, and she was old and rheumatized, would not little jemmy, the hunchback, who was a born pre-raphaelite, take her place, and have a home, for he could not face the rough world? ah me! and it was all gone; cast behind her through a righteous feeling of pride and duty. she moved through the village with a heavy heart; and her check apron went to her eyes.
she had an amiable habit of never entering her cabin without playing "peek-a-boo!" through the window with the baby. for this purpose, the cradle was always drawn so that the baby faced the window; and when it saw the round face, which it knew so well, peeping over the speck blossoms of the mignonette, well—there were developments. on this particular morning, mrs. darcy was in no humor for playacting; but the force of habit is strong, and she peered through the little window with reddened eyes. and these eyes, as she afterwards described it, "sprod in her head" at what she saw. for, on the floor, in his favorite attitude, his head propped between his hands, was the hunchback, jemmy, studying with all the intense appreciation of an edison, how to construct an airy castle out of certain painted wood-blocks, which strewed the floor; and there, his back turned towards the window, was her arch-enemy, father letheby, his right hand raised aloft and dangling an india-rubber baby; whilst patsey, his eyes dilated with excitement, made frantic attempts to seize the prize, and crowed and chuckled in the exuberance of his delight. mrs. darcy drew back hastily, then peeped again. no doubt of it. it was no phantasm of the imagination. she looked again. then whispered something softly to herself, and, with a great lump in her throat, sped swiftly through the village and up to the "great house." the result of her interview with miss campion we have seen. father letheby has scored again. there were heavy bets of fifteen to one in half-gallons of porter, laid by desperate gamblers, that father letheby would make mrs. darcy wash her face. it was supposed to be a wild plunge in a hopeless speculation. i am told now, that the betting has gone up at the forge, and is now fifty to one that, before a month, she'll have a lace cap and "sthramers" like the maids at the "great house."
