Thank you again for your welcome; you have
made me realise that the 'Mercury' is home, the staff a happy and united
family, to whom I am a father."

He spoke simply, in a straightforward, manly style, that went to their
hearts. When he sat down they continued to applaud for several minutes
before filing out to view the pictures.

"Denis Quirk is white," a compositor remarked emphatically to Tim
O'Neill.

"White!" replied Tim. "He is snow-white. He is the biggest and the
whitest thing in Grey Town--outside Miss O'Connor."

CHAPTER XXV.

A PROPOSAL.

"Where shall I put the old gown?" sighed Molly Healy as she surveyed a
trunk already packed to overflowing. "I took it out to make place for
the shoes, and now I must take out the shawl to make place for it. I am
tired of taking out and putting in again."

Therewith she seated herself despairingly on a chair and eyed the trunk
in disgust. Kathleen O'Connor regarded her with a smile of amusement.

"May I see what I can do?" she asked.

"I am beyond refusing you anything, Kathleen. I have that trunk on my
brain, and it's worse than water in the same place. Mrs. Gorman kept
poking her nose in and telling me: 'I had no method' until I slammed the
door in her face and locked it. Then the Father and Dr. Marsh began to
look in on me through the window, telling me I was overlooked when the
gift of tidiness was being distributed. But I have sent them on a dying
message to Pat Collins, who is not sick. Dan, too, must come along and
ask me why I was swearing? There is only one good angel in Grey Town,
and you are that one, Kathleen O'Connor."

Kathleen began to remove the contents of the trunk, loosely rolled up
and thrown in after a harum-scarum fashion.

"What will you do at St. Luke's?" she asked.

"I am going there to mortify the flesh. Nursing I love, but to be tidy
is a penance to me."

"Make a big effort," suggested Kathleen.

"I wonder could I? I wouldn't enjoy a tidy room one bit. I would not so
much as dare to brush my hair for fear of disturbing the arrangements."

"The Mother Superioress insists upon her nurses' appearance being spick
and span," said Kathleen.

"For two ha'pence I would not go there, but ever since I cared for poor
Joe Mulcahy I have wished to be a nurse. Well, heaven help me and send
me the virtue of order."

Kathleen had managed by rearrangement of the contents to find a place in
the trunk for the rebellious gown. She closed t