ild the new school?"

"Not at present, Mr. Quirk. If you will give me five minutes, I will ask
no more."

"Then come into my room. Finish that, address it, and post it, Tim."

"Yes, sir. And might I then go down to the hall and report that
meeting?"

"Certainly, Tim. This is the keenest man on my staff, Father."

Tim O'Neill beamed all over at this praise, and he settled himself
resolutely to his task. Meanwhile Denis Quirk's office door closed with
a bang on Father Healy and himself.

"I should like you to read this," said the priest, as he handed the
fateful letter to Denis Quirk.

The latter took it and read it frowningly. Then he leaned back in his
chair, and regarded the priest with a composed face.

"Well?" asked Father Healy.

"Well?" responded Denis.

"You will, of course, deny the calumny?"

Denis Quirk shook his head.

"The writer is a good man and a priest. As for the accusation, let time
be the judge. I shall neither acknowledge nor deny it. There are others
concerned besides myself."

Father Healy was for the moment bereft of the power of speech. He could
not understand Denis Quirk's attitude. At last he cried:

"You are accused of being a divorced man!"

"If I am, the action was not from me. I then adopted the attitude I now
propose to adopt. I merely sat quiet. There are persons concerned in
this whom I refuse to injure."

"And what do you intend to do?" asked Father Healy. "There will be a
horrible scandal in Grey Town."

"I shall do what I did in the States--just live it down and wait. Time
will put everything straight," said Denis Quirk.

"Your wife has married again?" the priest asked.

"I believe she has. Father Healy, all that I ask of you is your
confidence and trust. There is certain to be a storm, but I am strong
enough to stand it. I don't wish to lose my friends, you least of all.
Will you believe in me?"

Father Healy looked in the man's eyes, and Denis Quirk met his gaze
unflinchingly. He was particularly ugly that day, but Father Healy could
read human nature, and he believed that Denis Quirk was honest.

"I would have preferred you to have proved yourself innocent," he said.

"I cannot do that; others can. It is for them to speak, not me," replied
Denis.

"I promise that I will hold to you," said the priest.

"Thank you, Father. If you will do that--you, the old mother, and one
other--I am content," he said.

As the good priest left "The Mercury" in a partic