"Mr. Quirk does not wish you to know," Kathleen suggested.

"Not knowing is worse than the very illest news. I will be in a fever
until I hear. Just run away and do what I ask of you."

Kathleen recognised that Mrs. Quirk was determined, and wisely obeyed
without further hesitation. But when she saw the nature of the charges
she paused before reading them aloud to the old lady.

Denis Quirk, with his customary straightforwardness and honesty, had
printed the account of the scene in the Council Chambers word for word.
There it stood--his own accusation and the counter-charges urged against
him. He had attempted neither palliation nor excuse. But in the same
issue of "The Mercury" he had reproduced the account of the proceedings
in the Golden Vale Court, that had ended in his acquittal. More than
this, he had reprinted the apology of "The Investigator," as it had
appeared in that paper.

But to Kathleen and to Mrs. Quirk the account of the divorce proceedings
was the most serious indictment against Denis, and here he offered
neither denial nor excuse. Both women held firmly to the belief that
marriage is sacred and irrevocable, and that no human power--nothing
short of death--can annul the bond uniting man and wife.

Fearing to hurt her old friend, Kathleen attempted to avoid this part of
the accusation. But she was a bad dissembler, and Mrs. Quirk very keen.

"There is something more, Honey. Let me hear all that those backbiters
found to say," she urged.

When she had learned the full account of the charges, she burst out into
lamentation.

"To think of it!" she cried. "Denis, the apple of my eye, to be in that
Divorce Court! It is, for sure, the wickedest place ever invented by
man--and him there!"

"But he did not appear," said Kathleen.

"And them saying all those things against him! Where was he, then, if
not giving them back the lie? I don't believe it, not one word of it
all. He has his enemies, and they have invented this. Oh, why isn't
Father Healy here to advise me?"

"Why not go and ask Denis?" suggested Kathleen. "He will tell you the
truth."

"Do you believe he did what they say of him?"

Kathleen looked out at the bright sky flecked with white clouds, at the
green lawns, and the masses of colour in the flower-beds. The sun was
shining brightly, scores of birds uniting in melody, music, brightness
and peace everywhere.

"I would almost as soon believe that this world was not created by
Alm