The Woman and the Priest

hted by an oil lamp. Behind the ridge, which looked a mountain as see

he horse, and they were still sitting there drinking and joking, and telling hunting stories. The old man with the white beard, a hunter

e them! And he used to snare them, too, and that is forbidden, because animals feel pain just as we do, and the hours they lie caught in the snares must be terrible. Once I myself, with these very eyes, I saw a snare where a hare had left her foot. Do you understan

lk reels and happened to be passing with a load of his goods; I bought the whole lot, then I set them rolling about on the piazza and ran after them, kicking them here and there and everywhere! In one instant the whole crowd was after me, laughing and yelling,

with the white beard, who was observing him with reverent affection, winked at his companions to suggest a

one, between the flickering flame of the oil lamp and the calm splendour of the moon that shone in through the h

he had been bearing a heavy yoke all the day, he had no thought of going up to his own room. His mother was still

d his thoughts in the night, the letter, the Mass, the journey up the mountain, the villagers' demonstration, had all been only a dream. His real li

ting me any longer. Perhaps s

not at the thought of going back to her, but at the thought that she

to bear since he came down from the mountain had been this—not know

e death, that she sho

e before his mind's eye, then he began to reproach her for

ts in your two strong hands and said to me: 'We are bound to each other for ever,

s collar, for he was suff

e," he thought, and remembered the h

lso if thereby he could only free himself. Now he decided to go up to his room, but as he moved towards the hall he saw his

boy still her

t wait up any longer, but go to his room and to bed. Her faith in him was now completely restored, but she too thought of the devil and his snares. At this mom

my mother is expecting a v

d the priest's mother. "Come now, be off with you, and tell

she saw his glassy eyes fixed upon the lamp, but his

th an expression of

ting him; she thinks it

he would go and tell her at

e saw that his mother was afraid lest he should go out again, and the knowledge filled him

and see yo

owever, he tur

rectly, mother; don

gh the half-open door and saw them cross the moonlit square and enter the wine-shop, which was s

appearing; it had all been a dream. At the bottom of her heart, however, she did no

ad mended for her son. And she felt that even if the ghost did come bac

etrated even into the house. And the mother herself was tranquil now, though she hardly knew why, seeing that Paul might yet fall again into sin; but she no longer felt the sa

oh Lord,

l. Why, oh Lord, was Paul forbidden to love a woman? Love was lawful for all, even for servants and herdsmen, even

self on her. She remembered the words of Antiochu

t the priests, asked permission to li

ent predecessors. He would never give way to tears; his eyelids woul

g childish!"

minute had struck a blow upon her soul as the hammer of the stone-breaker struck upon the heaps of broken rock there behind the ridge. So many things n

hought the mother; "sh

t and set fire to anything near: then she shut the house door, for she knew Paul always carried a key with him. She stamped about

hurches, for an earthquake may overthrow them both. Thus she felt sure of Paul for the future, and sure of herself, but always with an underlying dread of the unknown which mig

m contact with its tiny body; and somehow the touch of the living thing made her repent of her impatience, and she went back to the lamp, and drawing the knot in front of her she succeeded at last in untying it. With a sigh of relief she slowly undressed, carefully folding her garm

from that fact that his mother had full confidence in him. That was the right way to manage him, show that you trusted him absolutely. Nevertheless, she was on the alert, and listened for the least sound; not in the same way as on the previous night, but stil

on usury and was commonly supposed to be a procuress too. No, Paul's mother could not understand it. Then she blew

take hold of her; for a moment her blood froze in her veins, then surged to her heart as a people in tumult rushes through the streets of its city to the

little room fit only for a servant. She lay down and drew the bedclothes over her, covering her ears, too, so that she might not hear whether Paul came home or not; but in her i

g to undo the knot in her apron string. Then the faint buzzing in her ears beneath the coverlet turned gradually into the murmuring of the crowd in the square beneath her window, and farther off still the murmuring of a people who la

ype="