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"Can't you put the child somewhere, until we’ve finished talking?"
he asked irritably,
’’No," she answered. "It's past his feeding time anyway."
In his annoyance, Sorleyson said something that he had already
considered and rejected, as being contemptible and cruel.
"Sarah, tell me, what do you think your mother would have felt
about this?"
He saw her wince and immediately regretted his question. The young
mother looked at him calmly for a moment. " Well, you said you came as a
friend, Mr Sorleyson. I hope you're satisfied now. What you've said to
me is no different from what the people of the townland would say. You're
a man who's supposed to know better. Everything should be a kind of a
way for you, to be right. Nothing ever is. It was the same when - "
"When what?" asked Sorleyson, leaning forward.
"When Andrew died. I dont know how ye did it, but ye stole some-
thing away from that too!"
"Surely, surely I didn't!" cried Sorleyson.
"Yes, ye did!" cried the woman springing up in passion. "I told ye
he left go of the boat for us, and ye said something about a sacrifice
that should teach us something. It was like as if he had done nothing
more than threw a pound-note on the collection plate. He gave his life
for his sons and me, and all the time you were thinking how it could be
made to prove something else, "My God, Mr Sorleyson, things happen to
people!"
"Yes, Sarah," answered the minister, "but there is a guidance that
helps us to combat the temptations of life, and a Divine help which
supports us in those evil hours that none of us can avoid. Have you
