mail in his confession on a dictation record and receive absolution by phone?â
Father Halloran nodded. âOnce or twice. He is hard to discourage.â
âAnd the druggistâdoes he always expect you to deliver prescriptions if youâre âgoing that wayâ?â
âYou mustnât be hard on him. He only does that when he knows Iâm going to visit an ailing parishioner who happens to be one of his customers. I donât mind. This parish is something like a small town, you know.â
âYes, I know.â
âThatâs one of the pleasant things about it.â
âThat very old gentleman,â Gregory continued, âMr. Sowerby. Iâm glad you prepared me for him. It must have been unnerving for you to administer last rites on three separate and distinct occasions, only for him to rally and live happily ever after, each time.â
âYes, that has been extraordinary, I will admit.â
âWhat about this Barlow family? The husband seems nice enough, rather placid, but the wifeâs personality struck me as beingâwell, distilled to triple-strength. Is she always so forceful, so domineering?â
âMrs. Barlow is a very respected woman,â said Father Halloran, âand considered somewhat of a leader among the ladies of the parish. She is quite active socially. In a way, I suppose she is an attractive person.â
âI suppose.â
âThe family I worry about,â said Father Halloran after a short pause, âis not the Barlows, but the Garths.â
âIsnât that the family we just left? The man and his daughter?â
âYes,â said Father Halloran. âItâs a difficult problem, and complex. The girlâsheâs sixteen, mother deadâis very disturbed, mentally. She hasâfits. Sheâs seen doctors, and I strongly urged her father to take her to a psychiatrist as well. . . .â
A sixteen-year-old girl with âfits.â Gregory smiled inwardly: it was such a quaint, old-fashioned word, âfits.â In young women,they were so often rooted in sexual hysteria. Sex, that great raw force that seethed and snarled for release, took strange forms.
Gregory had often thought of it as a wildly onrushing river terminating in a roaring waterfall. Two men, coming upon the tumult of that waterfall, might react to it in two different ways. One man might be unconsciously repelled by such a display of mindless ferocity, of nature unrestrained; his inner reaction, though he himself might not know it, tends toward a desire to somehow stop it, or, failing that, to block off the rushing river, make it go away so he wonât have to look at it. It is too big and unharnessed for him, it offends him.
The other man, of quite different stamp, says to himself: Ah! What a wonderful, wild, untamed force! But how wasted. This divine giantâs power can be channelled and used for good works. So he builds a dam that does not stop the raging water but makes it work for him, turning wheels, generating electric power, irrigating parched lands. That attitude toward the waterfall is the Catholic attitude toward sex, Gregory had always liked to think; the other attitude was Protestant. (âBut then,â he was in the habit of shrugging, âIâm prejudiced.â)
Father Halloran was looking at his watch. âIâm afraid I must be going,â he said. âDaylight Saving or Godâs Time, itâs getting late. I have quite a drive ahead of me.â
âYouâre all packed?â
âMy bags are in the car.â He stood up. âGood-bye, Father Sargent.â
âYouâre sure you wonât stay the night?â
âI really canât.â
Gregory accompanied the elder priest to the door. âGood-bye, then, Father Halloran. And thank you again for easing me into my new post here. Iâm very grateful.â
At the door, Father Halloran turned