That was their intention, and they had no other.

They meant to go to church.
But it happened that they were attentively preoccupied in a conversation as they came to the church; and though Mary was looking to the right and Bibbs was looking to the left, Bibbs's leftward glance converged with Mary's rightward glance, and neither was looking far beyond the other at this time.

It also happened that, though they were a little jostled among groups of people in the vicinity of the church, they passed this somewhat prominent edifice without being aware of their proximity to it, and they had gone an incredible number of blocks beyond it before they discovered their error.

However, feeling that they might be embarrassingly late if they returned, they decided that a walk would make them as good.

It was a windless winter morning, with an inch of crisp snow over the ground.