"It will probably mean the end of his intention for the Church."
"That is more than likely. These sudden changes have the effect of throwing a shadow over many a young fellow's vocation."
His eyes twinkled, but he fingered his mustache nervously as he said this.
"Funny to think of the two of us getting thrown down together, we being such friends!"
The doubtful humor in the coincidence had appealed to the queer kink that was in the mind of Ulick, and it was because of it he now spoke. It was the merest wantonness that he should have said this thing, and yet it seemed instantly to have struck some hidden chord of deeper thought in his uncle's mind. When Myles Shannon spoke again it was abruptly, and his words seemed to spring out of a sudden impulse:
"You'd better think over that matter of the Army I have just mentioned."
It was the first time his uncle Myles had spoken to him in this way, and now that the rod of correction had fallen even thus lightly he did not like it at all. He felt that his face was already flushing.... And into his mind was burning again the thought of how he had made such a mess of things.... He moved towards the door, and there was his uncle's voice again raised as if in the reproof of authority:
"And where might you be going to-day?"
"Down the valley to see my friend John Brennan, who'll be surely lonely on the first day at home," he said, rather hurriedly, as he went out in the hallway to get his overcoat.
When Myles Shannon was left alone he immediately drifted into deeper thought there in the empty room with his back to the fire. With one hand he clasped his long coat-tails, and with the other nervously twirled his long mustache. He was thinking rapidly, and his thoughts were so strong within him that he was speaking them aloud.