"Ony way there was once."
"You think he's dead then?"
"I don't say that. It's a matter of,—faith, thin, it's a matter of nigh twenty years since I saw the Captain. And when I did see him I didn't like him. I can tell you that, Mr. Neville."
"I suppose not."
"That lass up there was not born when I saw him. He was a handsome man too, and might have been a gentleman av' he would."
"But he wasn't."
"It's a hard thing to say what is a gentleman, Mr. Neville. I don't know a much harder thing. Them folk at Castle Quin, now, wouldn't scruple to say that I'm no gentleman, just because I'm a Popish priest. I say that Captain O'Hara was no gentleman because—he ill-treated a woman." Father Marty as he said this stopped a moment on the road, turning round and looking Neville full in the face. Fred bore the look fairly well. Perhaps at the moment he did not understand its application. It may be that he still had a clear conscience in that matter, and thought that he was resolved to treat Kate O'Hara after a fashion that would in no way detract from his own character as a gentleman. "As it was," continued the priest, "he was a low blag-guard."
"He hadn't any money, I suppose?"
"'Deed and I don't think he was iver throubled much in respect of money. But money doesn't matter, Mr. Neville."
"Not in the least," said Fred.