The Woman and the Priest

rm her suspicions, but now with the return of the spring, with t

night, and he wen

I do, how ca

er in reply, shaking the hous

in order that she might bring up her boy rightly and set him a good example. Then they came here, and just such a furious wind as this had beset them on their journey. It had been springtime then, too, but the whole valley seemed to have slipped back into the grip of winter. L

es came to a dead stop, pricking their ears and neighing with fear. The storm shook their bridles like some bandit who had seized their heads to stop th

t of the old priest trying

smile that touched but one corner of his lips, his eyes were sad as they rested on the village which now came in

up of the younger men amongst them had gone down to meet the travellers on the river bank. They descended the hill like a flight of young eagles from the mountains, and the air resounded with their merry shouts. When they reached their parish priest t

Again she seemed to be living in a dream, to be borne as though on a cloud by those noisy youths, while beside her walk

flames streaming out like red banners against the background of black clouds and casting their reflec

caps or framed in women's kerchiefs with long fluttering fringes. The children's eyes danced with delight at the unwonted excitem

en trembling like narcissi in the wind; the bells were ringing loudly, and even the cl

ittle crowd: "Here he is! Here he

ps tightly together and bent his eyes upon the ground with a slight frown, as though tired by the burden of that heavy brow. Then suddenly, when they had reached the piazza and were surrounded by the welcoming throng, the mother

ng women gave

those tears falling on her heart even in this hour of her grief. Her Paul! Her love, her hope, the embodiment of her desire for unearthly joy! And now

d held it aloft as she looked round her bare little room, where a wooden bedstead and a worm-eaten wardrobe kept each other company as the only furniture i

f a girl; he had loved quiet, silence, order, and always had flowers upon his little writing-table in front of the window. But latterly he

on: she picked up the coat and thought scornfully that she would be strong enough even to pick up her son himself. Then she tidied the room, clattering to and fro without troubling now to deaden the sound of her heavy peasant shoes. She drew

n. But Paul, on the contrary, was attracted to the mirror as to a well from whose depths a face smiled up at him, luring him down to perish. But it was the mother's own scornful face and threatening eyes that the little mirror reflected now, and with rising anger she put out her hand and tore i

d, and she bent down to examine it more closely. There was Jesus the Good Shepherd watering His sheep at a spring in the midst of a forest. Between

the village he often talked of leaving and going back into the world: then he settled down into a sort of waking sleep, in the shadow of the ridge and the murmur of the trees. Thus seven years passed, a

rned towards a crucifix which hung on the wall above a kneeling-stool, raising the lamp above her head that she might see it better; and midst the shadows that her movements threw on the wall i

and bloodless, Thou Whose Face beneath its crown of thorns is sweet a

nto the kitchen, where she sat down before the fire, already banked up with cinders for the night. Even there the wind seemed to penetrate by every crack and cranny, so that instead of being in the long low kitchen, whose uneven ceiling was supported by smoke-

ing to find some reason for her present unhappiness; but all her days had passed hard and clean as the beads o

the aunts with whom she lived would not let her go to the mill again. Then one day the man, who ordinarily never came up to the village, suddenly appeared at the house and said he wished to marry the girl. The other members of the family laughed at him, slapped him on the back and brushed the flour off his coat with a broom. But he took no notice of their jests and kept his eyes fixed on the girl. At last she consented to marry him, but she continued to live with her relations and went down each day to the mill to see her husband

and she had mourned for her husband as for a good old man who had been kind to her, but nothing more. She was

port your boy, and later on you can

rked and live

d to catch her as once the old kinsman had caught her amongst the tamarisks. Man is a hunter and woman his prey, but she had succeeded in evading all p

e tears rolled down her face an

as student. Black figures went silently to and fro, and in the passage outside she could hear the smothered laughter and larking the boys indulged in when there was nobody to reprove them. Tired to death, she sat beside a window ope

ught, and she waited anxiously till the house was quite

ght Paul must have come in while she was fast asleep and thus succeeded in escaping her notice. And actually, midst all the creakings and shaking caused by the wind, she could hear steps inside the house: some one was coming downstairs, crossing the ground-floor rooms, entering the kitchen. She thought she was still dreaming when a short, stout prie

eality she knew she only said that to give herse

im in front of the fire. He sat down and drew up his cassock a

my stockings for me, Maria Maddalena: I have no woman to l

ble priest? That shows

ied to make him

u have no need of s

on out of my parish. It was a bad thing for you, coming here, you had better have brought him up to follow his father's trade. But you are a

ndeed, I want to go. Man or ghost, whatever you are,

ught of winning Paradise, and I failed to perceive that Paradise is here on earth. When I did perceive it, it was too late: my arm could no longer reach up to gather the fruit of the tree and my knees would not bend that I might quench my thirst at the spring. So then I began to drink wine, to smoke a pipe and to play cards with all the rascals of the place. You call them r

ng thus the mother

ave my Paul alone and let him be damned. He has been sent by

g with what he said. She reflected that, in spite of all her efforts, Paul too might "

ver, was partly pretence. "I am only a poor, ignorant woman and don't understand

man! God created the world with all its beauty and gave it to man for his pleasure: so much the worse for him if he does not understand! But why should

e going very soon. That I can pr

es from striking: and perhaps it was I, but that is not to say that I mean any harm to you or your Paul. I only want you to go away. And mind, if you do not

, I will m

of the other and bending down to draw off his stockings, "no woman has ever seen my bare flesh, however much they have slandered m

She was alone again, in the kitc

to look for the stockings, and she thought she heard the faint footfall of t

ype="