And so it came about.
Although those most concerned did not say so, everybody could see from the outset the pity of its ever having come about at all.

The pious and stiffly respectable priest's sister had been harmless enough as a spinster.

It made the heart ache to contemplate her as a wife.
Incredibly narrow-minded, ignorant, suspicious, vain, and sour-tempered, she must have driven a less equable and well-rooted man than Jeremiah Madden to drink or flight.

He may have had his temptations, but they made no mark on the even record of his life.

He only worked the harder, concentrating upon his business those extra hours which another sort of home-life would have claimed instead.