While Father O’Hara moved among them with the decanter, they stood chatting and sipping their sherry, conscious of the aroma of roast lamb from beyond the green baize door down the hall. They were waiting until it was time to move into the dining room. Elsie never had to sound the gong on the hall table, for they knew by some kind of sixth sense when their number was complete. And this year, although none of them knew that Father Conroy was coming, they were waiting for him.

Two of them had slipped out for a stroll in the garden. The sun was shining. A cool, resinous breeze idled up the valley, stirring the leaves. Hands in their pockets, feet crunching the gravel, they strolled around the side of the house. Bat Cullen, who had seven dogs of his own, went on up to the yard to cast an eye over Father O’Hara’s setter, which was suffering from some distemper. Father Mahon preferred to turn away onto the path that led under the apple trees.

He was a professor in St. Declan’s, the diocesan seminary down in the town of Castlemore. Being the only one present who had never been out in a parish, he always felt at a loss during the initial exchanges when his colleagues met – not that he had a lot to say when the conversation became general. He had long ago resigned himself to being rather a “dry stick” to his students and friends.

An old man was scything the long grass beneath the trees, his head down and his back bent so that the wide-brimmed hat seemed like a fulcrum for the arms that swung the scythe. Father Mahon called hello, but the slow, rhythmical strokes continued without a pause. The air smelled of new-mown grass, and the first bees buzzed in the blossoms overhead. Soon it would be summer.

He walked on, head tilted back to watch the blossoms pass like clouds across the blue sky. The scything ceased behind him and, next moment, the air was rent with the scraping of stone on steel. Irritably, he turned to look back, but the man’s head was still hidden. All that he could see were the two bent arms moving around the circle of the hat.