The Collar (27 page)

The funeral procession stopped in a lane that ran along the edge of a lake. The surface of the lake was rough, and they could hear the splash of the water upon the stones. The two priests got out of the car and began to vest themselves, and then Mr Fogarty got out, too. He was very nervous and hesitant.

‘It's very inconvenient, and all the rest of it,' he said, ‘but I don't want you gentlemen to think that I didn't know you were acting from the best motives.'

‘That's very kind of you, Mr Fogarty,' Jackson said. ‘Maybe we made mistakes as well.'

‘Thank you, Father Jackson,' Mr Fogarty said, and held out his hand. The two priests shook hands with him and he went off, raising his hat.

‘Well, that's one trouble over,' Father Hamilton said wryly as an old man plunged through the mud towards the car.

‘Lights is what we're looking for!' he shouted. ‘Let ye turn her sidewise and throw the headlights on the causeway the way we'll see what we're doing.'

Their driver swore, but he reversed and turned the front of the car till it almost faced the lake. Then he turned on his headlights. Somewhere farther up the road the parish priest's car did the same. One by one, the ranked headlights blazed up, and at every moment the scene before them grew more vivid – the gateway and the stile, and beyond it the causeway that ran towards the little brown stone oratory with its mock Romanesque doorway. As the lights strengthened and steadied, the whole island became like a vast piece of theatre scenery cut out against the gloomy wall of the mountain with the tiny whitewashed cottages at its base. Far above, caught in a stray flash of moonlight, Jackson saw the snow on its summit. ‘I'll be after you,' he said to Father Hamilton, and watched him, a little perturbed and looking behind him, join the parish priest by the gate. Jackson resented being seen by them because he was weeping, and he was a man who despised tears – his own and others'. It was like a miracle, and Father Jackson didn't really believe in miracles. Standing back by the fence to let the last of the mourners pass, he saw the coffin, like gold in the brilliant light, and heard the steadying voices of the four huge mountainy men who carried it. He saw it sway above the heads, shawled and bare, glittering between the little stunted holly bushes and hazels.

About the Author

Frank O'Connor (1903–1966) was born in Cork, Ireland, and fought for the Irish Republican Army in the war for independence. He was a prolific author of short stories, plays, literary criticism, memoir, and poetry, and the managing director of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In addition to being a renowned writer whom W. B. Yeats famously described as “doing for Ireland what Chekhov did for Russia,” O'Connor was also a highly regarded teacher and translator of Irish literature. The world's richest prize for short fiction is named in his honor.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

‘Uprooted' (
Criterion
, 1937); ‘News for the Church' (
New Yorker
, 1945); ‘The Sentry' (
Harper's Bazaar
, 1950); ‘The Old Faith' (
More Stories of Frank O'Connor
, Knopf, 1954); ‘The Miracle' (
The Common Chord
, Macmillan, 1947); ‘Achilles' Heel' (
New Yorker
, 1958); ‘The Shepherds' (
Harper's Bazaar
, 1946); ‘Peasants' (
An Long
, 1922); ‘Song without Words' (
Harper's Bazaar
, 1944); ‘Lost Fatherlands' (
New Yorker
, 1954); ‘A Mother's Warning' (
Saturday Evening Post
, 1967); ‘The Frying-pan' (
The Common Chord
, Macmillan, 1947); ‘The Teacher's Mass' (
New Yorker
, 1955); ‘The Wreath' (
Atlantic Monthly
, 1955); ‘An Act of Charity' (
New York
, 1967); and ‘The Mass Island' (
New Yorker
, 1959).

Copyright © Selection and Introduction 1993 by Harriet O'Donovan Sheehy

Cover design by Mauricio Diaz

ISBN: 978-1-4976-5506-5

This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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EBOOKS BY FRANK O'CONNOR

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