Celtic renaissance, stained glass, the possibility of rebuilding
another Cormac's Chapel. He sat warming his shins before the
stove, and I thought he would have gone on for ever arguing about
the possibility of returning to origins of art. I had to stop him,
he was wasting all my day, and I brought over that table to show
him my design for the altar. He said it was not large enough, and
he took hours to explain how much room the priest would require
for his book and his chalice. I thought I should never have got
rid of him. He wanted to know about the statue of the Virgin, and
he was not satisfied when I told him it was not finished. He
prowled about the studio, looking into everything. I had sent him
a sketch for the Virgin and Child, and he recognised the pose as
the same, and he began to argue. I told him that sculptors always
used models, and that even a draped figure had to be done from the
nude first, and that the drapery went on afterwards. It was
foolish to tell him these things, but one is tempted to tread on
their ignorance, their bigotry; all they say and do is based on
hatred of life. Iconoclast and peasant! He sent some religion-
besotted slave to break my statue."

"I don't think Father McCabe would have done that; he has got me
into a great deal of trouble, but you are wronging him. He would
not get a ruffian to break into your studio."

Rodney and Lucy stood looking at each other, and she had spoken
with such conviction that he felt she might be right.

"But who else could do it except the priest? No one had any
interest in having it done except the priest. He as much as told
me that he would never get any pleasure from the statue now that