What we fear, though, is that, when he goes, Clonbyre and Nead will be taken in with Oscarey again and Oscarey possibly abandoned, so far away we are.
"There was a line or two about Oscarey in the Gazette," Hester said as they drove off again, referring to the magazine that was a source of Church of Ireland news.
The small church at Oscarey that had served a purpose in the past was being talked about again.
And her brother saying them in the hush while Hester still knelt among the few who came to Oscarey church, before the shuffling and the whispering began, was special, too.
It was a townland in the Wicklow mountains, remote and bleak, once distinguished by the thriving presence of Oscarey House, of which no trace now remained.
The Church approved the rescuing of Oscarey; and it was anticipated, as Mr. Flewett had surmised, that when old Canon Furney died the benefice of Clonbyre, Nead, and Oscarey would become one again, and that the unnecessarily spacious, drafty rectory in poor repair at Clonbyre would be abandoned in favor of a smaller, more comfortable one at Oscarey.
"Lucky I called in there," he was saying, and Hester sensed that he had guessed by now why they were driving to Oscarey.
"You'd take to Oscarey," Hester said.
"All of us at Oscarey hope that".
Bartholomew drove his sister to Oscarey when she asked him to.
