Summary
The weather forecast for the week of Christmas reads snow. Furlong closes his business for ten days around that time, so people call in a panic for last-minute orders. The last shipment of the year comes in late, and Furlong leaves Kathleen in charge of the office while he makes out-of-town deliveries and collects what his clients owe him. Kathleen appears to be burnt out from the work. She hands her father an order from the convent, and he resolves to make the delivery on Sunday. The intense workload leads Furlong to eat only a few biscuits and tea for lunch, but he does take a moment to warm himself by the gas heater. When he realizes that the heater is beginning to break down and not work, Furlong asks his daughter if she is warm enough. From her short answers to his questions, he can tell that something is bothering her. She tells him that she wanted to go out after work to enjoy some time with friends, but that Eileen had called and said that Kathleen had to accompany her mother to the dentist.
The next morning (a Sunday), the sky appears "strange and close" with just a few dim stars visible. A dog scavenges for food outside on the street, and the crows caw. Furlong describes some of the birds as neat and trim in appearance. They remind him of an assistant member of the clergy who walks around town with his hands behind his back.
Before going to work, Furlong gazes at his sleeping wife and feels an acute need to touch her. But instead, he gets up and dresses in the dark. Before going downstairs, he checks on Kathleen because she'd had a tooth pulled the day before. Loretta is the only one awake, and Furlong asks if she's alright before going to the kitchen for a quick breakfast of buttered bread.
Furlong makes his way to the workyard, feeling "the strain of being alive" due to working early on what is meant to be a day of rest. He finds the yard gate padlock frozen shut, so he knocks on the door of a nearby household. An unfamiliar young woman opens the door, wearing a long nightgown and shawl. Her cinnamon-colored hair falls nearly to her waist, and she walks barefoot as she prepares breakfast for the children of the house. Furlong recognizes the three young children sitting at the table as they draw and eat raisins. He can't place the pleasant smell wafting from the kitchen.
Furlong asks the woman for a hot kettle to melt the ice from the padlock. Her accent indicates that she is from the West. She gives Furlong the kettle, and when he comes back to return it, he sees her pouring hot milk over the children's cereal. The warmth and comfort of this kitchen scene impact Furlong, who imagines what it would be like to live there as the man of the house. Lately he'd often imagined himself in other circumstances, and wondered if this had to do with not knowing who his father was. The woman offers Furlong tea, but he says he has to get going. He also tells her that he'll have someone drop off a bag of logs for the household.
Furlong anxiously rechecks that everything is in order. In his office, he leaves a note about giving the logs to the neighboring house, and lets the phone ring without attending the call. Then, he sleepily drives to the convent to make the delivery. A statue of Our Lady appears "disappointed by the artificial flowers" laid at her feet. Furlong thinks that the place is not peaceful despite its stillness in the predawn. He looks down at the dark river reflecting the town's lights, and thinks about how "so many things [have] a way of looking finer" from far away. He stands and watches one star streak and another burn out before fading in the sky.
Upon opening the coal house door, Furlong senses that there is someone or something inside. He assumes it is a dog, but discovers that a girl had spent more than the entire freezing night locked in the shed. Furlong sees in the torchlight that she'd had to relieve herself and remain next to the excrement. Furlong moves to put his coat around her, but she cowers in fear. He blesses her and coaxes her out of the shed in a gentle manner. A part of Furlong wishes he hadn't come upon this scene.
Back at the truck, Furlong asks the girl why she had been left in the shed. She doesn't reply, and Furlong is at a loss for what to say to comfort her. He feels uncertain as he takes her to the front door, but "[carries] on, as [is] his habit." A nun gasps in surprise and quickly shuts the door. Furlong questions what is happening at this convent, but the girl stays quiet while burning a hole through the door with her eyes. They stand on the front step for a long time while Furlong considers his options. Again, a part of him wishes to be rid of the situation and go home.
When Furlong rings the doorbell again, the girl asks him to inquire about her 14-week-old baby boy. She tells Furlong that "they've" taken him away and she doesn't know where he is. The Mother Superior opens the door and smiles as she greets Furlong. They exchange pleasantries and the Mother asks the girl where she'd been, saying that they were going to call the police after discovering that she wasn't in her bed. Furlong informs the Mother that the girl was locked in the shed all night. The Mother states that "this poor girl can't tell night from day sometimes." She then insists that Furlong come in for tea, which he feels extremely resistant to do.
In the back kitchen, girls peel turnips and wash cabbage heads while the nun who'd answered the door stirs something in a pot and minds the kettle. Furlong notes how immaculately clean and shining everything is. He even sees his reflection in a hanging pot. As Furlong follows the Mother Superior onward, he points out that they're leaving dirty tracks on the clean floor, to which she says that it doesn't matter. She leads him to a big, fine room with a lighted fire, a long table with a white cloth, chairs, a mahogany sideboard with bookcases, and a picture of John Paul II on the mantelpiece. The Mother Superior tells Furlong to warm himself beside the fire as she goes to purportedly take care of the girl. The young nun from before carries in a tea tray with shaking hands, dropping a spoon.
When the Mother Superior reenters, she asks Furlong about how things are at home. She makes remarks about his daughters progress in their music and academic lessons, which they take at the girls' school run by the convent. The Mother states that she hopes the youngest Furlong girls will have a place at the school since there aren't many available spots. Finally, she mentions that Furlong must be disappointed in not having any boys "to carry on the name." Furlong responds by saying that he himself took on his mother's name, and that he has nothing against girls considering that every woman was once a girl (including the Mother Superior).
The door opens again, and the girl from the shed comes in. She wears a blouse, cardigan, pleated skirt, and shoes, and her hair has been washed and combed. Furlong asks her if she is alright, and The Mother Superior tells her to sit down for tea and cake. The girl awkwardly eats and drinks. After making small talk, the Mother Superior asks the girl how she came to be in the shed. The girl tells them that "they hid me," and the Mother Superior states that it was a game of hide and seek. The girl sobs but affirms that "it was a big nothing" that left her in the shed. The Mother tells the nun who brought the girl in to make sure she is fed well and that she spends the day resting.
Furlong feels without being told that the Mother Superior wants him to leave, but he now feels a desire to confront her. He idles and makes more small talk. She asks about his business, commenting that he doesn't mind bringing foreign sailors in. Furlong responds by saying that everyone is born somewhere, and that Jesus was born in Bethlehem (not Ireland). The Mother Superior states that she would hardly consider comparing the sailors to "Our Lord" before she takes out an envelope and hands it to Furlong. Inside is a Christmas tip, which Furlong reluctantly accepts.
On the way out, Furlong stops in the kitchen to check in with the girl. The girl cries in response to his kindness. Furlong asks what her real name is, since she'd been given a boy's name at the convent, and finds that the girl shares the name Sarah with his mother. But when Furlong asks the girl how she ended up at the convent, the nun signals her silence by coughing and shaking the pan. Furlong tells the girl his name and that she can send to him for help any time. When he leaves the convent, he hears someone locking the door behind him.
Analysis
When Kathleen expresses disappointment at having to go to the dentist instead of spending time with friends, this shows that Eileen takes action based on the dream she had in a previous chapter of Kathleen having a rotten tooth. Kathleen indeed does end up getting a tooth pulled, which confirms Furlong's comment in Chapter Three about women's intuitions. Specifically, he discussed how they can "predict what was to come long before it came, dream it overnight, and read your mind." This subtle detail affirms Eileen's intuition, and thus emphasizes her practical insistence that Furlong not get involved in the convent's affairs lest it bring trouble for the family.
Place of origin plays an important role in this chapter. When Furlong knocks on the door of a neighboring house to request a hot kettle, he notices that the unfamiliar girl who answers sounds like "she was from The West." This indicates that she moved to find work. Furlong's encounter with this woman prompts him to briefly imagine living in that household with her as his wife. He credits his straying imagination to "something in his blood;" not knowing his own father opens these imagined possibilities for not only his father's life, but for his as well. The young woman working in this household is clearly in a much better situation than the girl that Furlong finds locked in the convent's coal shed. When he asks this traumatized woman where she is from, the nuns prevent her from saying more than "out beyond Clonegal." Keegan leaves the reasons for both these young women moving (or being moved) to New Ross unexplained, instead allowing the reader to fill in the blanks.
Reflections appear as a motif in this chapter. They give the impression to Furlong of an out-of-body experience and cause him to think about himself in relation to his setting. For example, as he drives up to the convent to deliver coal, the reflection of his headlights crosses the windowpane, causing him to feel "as though he was meeting himself there." Once he gets out of the car, he spends time thinking about the reflection of the town lights on the surface of the river. Furlong remarks that looking at things from a distance makes them look "finer" than seeing them up close. This relates directly to the convent. From a distance, its beautiful and well-kept outer appearance could influence the assumption that the nuns treat the girls and women living there with the same amount of care that is given to the hedges, trees, and lawn. However, Furlong glimpses the ugliness inside the place on his first delivery, and directly witnesses abuse on his second. After being coaxed inside the convent, Furlong sees his reflection in the immaculately clean pots hanging in the kitchen. Again, things are not as they seem. Keegan insinuates that the girls and women living at the convent are forced to scrub everything until it shines. The appearance of beauty and cleanliness is predicated on forced suffering.
Keegan's writing is known for its brevity, efficiency, and omission. What is left unsaid plays as much of a role as the words of the narrative itself. Although Furlong questions what is happening at the convent, he does not outrightly state his suspicions. The narrator uses language that casts the Mother Superior as an opponent in a power play. In his internal monologue, we see his desire to "hold his ground" and that "He had to hand it to her; her head was cool." Later, when Furlong passes by the kitchen to let the girl know she can reach out to him any time, a nun signals via coughing and roughly shaking the frying pan that the girl needs to shut up. Without words, she forces the girl's silence. Keegan leaves the characters' motivations up to the reader's imagination. One can assume that the nuns control the girl by rescinding her access to her son.
Keegan further illustrates the apparent abuse at the convent when the Mother Superior says, "this poor girl can't tell night from day sometimes." This is an example of character projection in which the nuns physically and psychologically torture the girls and then question their sanity. According to the US Department of Health & Human Services Office on Women's Health, experiencing "abuse, whether physical, emotional, verbal, or sexual, can have long-term effects on your mental health." More broadly, any type of violence inflicted on a man, woman, or child can have long-lasting impacts (Krug, et. al). Irish society normalized the abusive treatment of unmarried mothers based on religious and moral condemnation. This means that the specific abuses that Furlong witnesses in the novella have widespread religious and communal roots.
Power relations based on gender play an important role in this chapter. Despite the tight ship she runs at the convent, the Mother Superior fears Furlong because of his status as a man. General societal norms may support the convent's abusive treatment of "fallen" girls and women, but the Mother Superior senses that Furlong could potentially threaten her establishment. Whereas he initially feels reluctant to enter the convent, he eventually decides to stay and "hold his ground" in confronting the Mother Superior. Unfortunately, it seems that she has extensive influence over his daughters' education when she implicitly threatens to withhold from them a place at the convent-run school.
