human
Well, Master Florian, said the priest,
gpt
Oh! Father Brosnan, I'm in terrible throuble.
human
What throuble's up now?
gpt
They're all agin me at home, and father's nearly as bad as any of them. It's all along of my religion.
human
I thought your father had given his consent?
gpt
So he has; but still he's agin me. And my two sisters are dead agin me. What am I to do about Pat Carroll?
human
Just hould your tongue.
gpt
They do be saying that because what Pat and the other boys did was agin father's interest, I am bound to tell.
human
You've given a promise?
gpt
I did give a promise.
human
And you swore an oath,
gpt
I did swear an oath certainly.
human
Then you must hould your tongue. In such a case as this I cannot absolve you from your word. I don't know what it is that Pat Carroll did. Here it must be admitted Father Brosnan did not stick to the absolute truth. He did know what Pat Carroll had done. All Headford knew that Mr. Jones's meadows had been flooded, and the priest must have known that the present cause of trouble at Castle Morony, was the injury thus done. Father Brosnan knew and approved of Pat Carroll's enmity to the Jones family. But he was able to justify the falsehood of his own heart, by stumbling over the degree of knowledge necessary. There was a sense in which he did not know it. He need not have sworn to it in a Court of Law. So he told himself, and so justified his conscience.
gpt
You need not tell me, he went on to say when the boy was proceeding to whisper the story,
human
I am not bound to know what it is that Pat Carroll does, and what it is that your father suffers. Do you go home, and keep your toe in your pump, as they say, and come to me for confession a day or two before Christmas. And if any of them say anything to you about your religion, just sit quiet and bear it.
gpt
In such a case as this I cannot absolve you from your word.