Three Cheers For The Paraclete by Thomas Keneally Read Free Book Online

…’
    ‘You’re sure you won’t?’
    Egan was. On his knees, Maitland enjoyed hunting down some White Horse under the bed.
    Egan continued, ‘People get so resentful about our work. You know, one night a gentleman whose plea failed tried to assault me.’
    Maitland, finding the bottle, groaned.
    ‘Make unto yourself friends of the mammon of iniquity,’ he said.
    ‘Oh, of course,’ Egan agreed, thinking that Maitland was approving whisky with a text.
    ‘No, I don’t mean me. I have already more than fulfilled that glorious old saying. I meant the marriage court. From what I can remember of canon law, the court moves in gentle channels. I was thinking that if you employed a detective agency you’d soon scotch halfthese pleas for annulment on the grounds of impotency. I don’t suppose His Grace ever considered it.’
    Egan became very still. ‘I don’t think anybody has ever been temerarious enough to suggest it.’
    Temerarious , thought Maitland. It was an adjective worthy of conversation in a home for retired civil servants.
    ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I think there’s a great future for some temerarious cleric. It would be no different from employing professional fund-raisers. Private eyes are often used by jealous mothers, and I don’t think Mother Church should be outjealoused by any fleshly momma.’
    Concluding at the sink, he let a drizzle of water into the whisky. ‘Well,’ he called as he turned, ‘here’s to Dr Egan. May he prove defensor of a successful quorum of vinculorum .’
    Allegory of the mystic courting the divine fires, a brown moth fried itself against the ceiling light. Light fell on the defensor ’s dark hair kept counting-house sober with coconut oil. Tomorrow’s beard showed faint purple under the white cheeks but had no future in such a neat little man.
    Egan said painfully, ‘Are you trying to make fun of me, doctor?’
    Maitland threw his untasted whisky down the sink.
    ‘I’ve been here for two months and have received no more than a hullo from anybody.’
    ‘Perhaps no one has received more than a hullo from you.’
    ‘It’s not my place to make the move. I’m the outsider. I’m doubly the outsider because I’ve had too much freedom in Europe and freedom is dangerous in my case and I’m here for some form of rehabilitation. I don’t want to force myself on any of you if I’m likely to become an embarrassment to you. But two months is along time for two priests in the same house to be merely nodding acquaintances.’
    ‘As I explained, I’ve been very busy,’ the blue-white jaws enunciated.
    ‘I believe that if you meant to speak to me you would have. I’m sure that if I went to your room I would find all your books under proper regimen, a year’s lecture notes in your drawer, a razor in your cabinet that a surgeon could safely operate with. Your pyjamas would be in creditable creases under your pillow and all your dirty socks in a linen-bag. If you had wanted to see me you would have. You would have to leave excuses about being busy to people like me.’
    ‘You have too high an opinion of my orderliness, Dr Maitland. My lack of organization, like other people’s, calls out to Heaven for vengeance. I should have been to visit you earlier than this. I hope you are happy here and that you won’t find it necessary in future to poke fun at the work of others.’
    The little man then risked offering his hand. The way it was done was suddenly a hint of integrity utter within its limits. Maitland shook the hand and sat down.
    ‘Thank you. But I’m under a style of house arrest.’
    ‘That’s a bit exorbitant.’
    ‘I suppose so. But what I mean is that the monsignor is taking trouble with me. I suppose you know that he dragged me away the other day to attend an exemplary death and we nearly died an exemplary death together coming home from it.’
    ‘Monsignor Cairns,’ Egan said like a judgment.
    ‘Yes, I shouldn’t be flippant. I’m not a busy priest at