In this
way we would charge him a dozen or twenty times before getting to our
destination, but never once would he turn his head or have any inkling
of our carryings-on in the rear, even when his horse lashed out
viciously with his hind legs at the lances when they fell too near his
feet.
We enjoyed the advantage of the O'Keefe regime for about a year, then
one day, in his usual casual manner, without a hint as to how his
private affairs were going, he said that he had to go somewhere to see
some one about something, and we saw him no more. However, news of his
movements and a good deal of information about him reached us
incidentally, from all which it appeared that during his time with us,
and for some months previously, Father O'Keefe had been working out
his own salvation in a quiet way in accordance with a rather elaborate
plan which he had devised. Before he became our teacher he had lived
in some priestly establishment in the capital, and had been a hanger-
on at the Bishop's palace, waiting for a benefice or for some office,
and at length, tired of waiting in vain, he had quietly withdrawn
himself from this society and had got into communication with one of
the Protestant clergymen of the town. He intimated or insinuated that
he had long been troubled with certain scruples, that his conscience
demanded a little more liberty than his church would allow its
followers, and this had caused him to cast a wistful eye on that other
church whose followers were, alas! accorded a little more liberty than
was perhaps good for their souls.
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