"Why? Ah! who can answer such questions? But realty in this case there is an easy answer. He thinks me an objectionable sort of girl; I used to see it in his face when we met at your mother's house. He would look at me sometimes with a mild but quite decided disapproval when I had been saying something particularly frivolous or satirical; and I did not blame him in the least. How could he approve of me? You are the type of girl that he approves, and he is quite right."
"Marion, I wish you would not say such things."
"But they are true things. And, then, of course he knows the story of how your engagement ended, and very likely thinks me worse than I am in regard to that. Then I am worldly to the tips of my fingers; I have inherited a fortune to which I have no right, and—well, there is no good in going on. These are quite sufficient reasons why Father Byrne does not like me, and why I should not trouble him."
"All this is absolute nonsense; and I will prove that it is, if you do not positively object. I will go to him and ask him to see you, and you will find how quickly he will say yes."
Marion laughed a little—a laugh without any merriment, only a kind of sad self-scorn. "Upon my word," she said, "I am in so weak a frame of mind that a straw might influence me; and this being so, it is a comfort to trust to you, who will never lead any one wrong. Go to Father Byrne, if you will; but don't be surprised if he declines to have anything to do with me."
CHAPTER XXV.
It was without the least fear of Father Byrne's declining to have anything to do with Marion that Helen went to him—and it was something of a shock to her to find that Marion had been right in her opinion, and that he very much disapproved of and distrusted that fascinating young lady. He looked troubled at her request, and put out his lip in a way he had when anything perplexed him.
"My dear child," he said, hesitatingly, "I really don't see what I can do for your cousin. She is not a Catholic, she does not come to me for religious advice; and if she wants a worldly opinion, there are many people who could give it much better and with much more propriety than I."
"She does not think so, Father, and neither do I. It is not merely a worldly opinion, though it regards worldly matters; but a point where conscience comes in, and she wants to know what is right."