顷纫间，他们都透湿了，硬结的地面也泡透了。土质微细而板结的土地变成了一片泥乡泽国，淤到了马的跗关节，使它们步履踉跄。他们设法努力趱行；草地还可以走，但是，来到小河附近那片被踩得光秃秃的地面时，他们不得不下马了。马匹一旦解除了负担，倒没什么麻烦了，可是，弗兰克却发觉无法保持自己的平衡。这比在滑冰场里还要糟心。他们手膝并用地慢慢往小河的河岸顶上爬去，并且像投石似地滑下了河岸。通常被淹时只有一英尺深的潺氵爰流水的铺石路面现在翻滚着高达四英尺的泡沫；弗兰克听见神父在哈哈大笑着。在叫喊和湿透的帽子的抽打驱策下，马匹总算安然无恙地爬上了远处的河岸；但是弗兰克和拉尔夫神父却上不去，每次试着往上爬，都滑了下来。正当神父提议爬到一棵柳树上去的时候，那没人骑的马匹跑去惊动了帕迪，他拿着绳子来抛给了他们。
"你是我见过的最英俊的男人，拉尔夫·德·布里克萨特，"她说。"为什么有那么多教士长得都很漂亮呢？因为是爱尔兰人吗？你们爱尔兰人可真是一个俊美的民族。要不就是漂亮的男人发觉教士的职位是逃避他们相貌所引起的后果的避难所？我敢打赌，基里的姑娘们为你把心都想碎了。"
"我早就学会不拿正眼去瞧那些害相思病的姑娘了。"他笑了起来。"无论哪一个50岁以下的教士都是她们某些人的目标。而35岁以下的教士则常常是她们全体的目标。不过只有那稣教的姑娘才公然地试图勾引我。"
"你从来不直截了当地回答我的问题，是吗？"她直起身，把手放在了他的胸口上，停在那里不动了。"你是个纵情逸乐的家伙，拉尔夫，你的条件很好啊。你全身的皮肤都这么黝黑吗？"
Father Ralph shouted. "Dig your heels in, lad, or you'll drown in the mud!"
They were soaked within seconds, and so was the hard-baked ground. The fine,- nonporous soil became a sea of mud,
miring1 the horses to their hocks and setting them floundering. While the grass persisted they managed to press on, but near the
creek2 where the earth had been trodden to bareness they had to dismount. Once relieved of their burdens, the horses had no trouble, but Frank found it impossible to keep his balance. It was worse than a skating rink. On hands and knees they crawled to the top of the creek bank, and slid down it like
projectiles3. The stone roadway, which was normally covered by a foot of lazy water, was under four feet of
racing4 foam5; Frank heard the priest laugh. Urged on by shouts and slaps from
sodden6 hats, the horses managed to
scramble7 up the far bank without
mishap8, but Frank and Father Ralph could not. Every time they tried, they slid back again. The priest had just suggested they climb a
willow9 when Paddy, alerted by the appearance of riderless horses, came with a rope and hauled them out. Smiling and shaking his head, Father Ralph refused Paddy's offer of hospitality.
"I'm expected at the big house," he said.
Mary Carson heard him calling before any of her staff did, for he had chosen to walk
around to the front of the house, thinking it would be easier to reach his room.
"You're not coming inside like that," she said,
standing10 on the
veranda11. "Then be a dear, get me several towels and my case."
Unembarrassed, she watched him peel off his shirt, boots and breeches, leaning against
the half-open window into her drawing room as he toweled the worst of the mud off.
"You're the most beautiful man I've ever seen, Ralph de Bricassart," she said. "Why is it so many priests are beautiful? The Irishness? They're rather a handsome people, the Irish.Or is it that beautiful men find the priesthood a refuge from the consequences of their looks? I'll bet the girls in Gilly just eat their hearts out over you."
"I learned long ago not to take any notice of lovesick girls." He laughed. "Any priest
under fifty is a target for some of them, and a priest under thirty-five is usually a
target for all of them. But it's only the Protestant girls who openly try to
seduce12 me."
"You never answer my questions
outright13, do you?" Straightening, she laid her palm on his chest and held it there. "You're a sybarite, Ralph, you lie in the sun. Are you as brown all over?"
Smiling, he leaned his head forward, then laughed into her hair, his hands unbuttoning the cotton drawers;
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