Then, when Beaumont adroitly threw in the remark:
“You are not, I believe, a paid officer in the Army, Sister Gertrude; why should you concern yourself about the reformation of Patrick Sullivan?”
The witness paused for one short moment, and then, with utmost naturalness and naiveté, not as one quoting, but as speaking from her own heart, said quietly:
“Wist ye not that I must be about Father’s business?”
“That is the case for the defence, Sir,” Said Beaumont, with a bow to the Bench.
“We cannot convict upon such testimony,” said the Mayor, after consulting his colleagues. “We only hope this will be a warning to Sullivan. He shall go scot free this time, may God help him to be a better man.”
“The Clerk ought to say ‘Amen,’” muttered Sam Storth, “and then the thing would be complete. We’d turn the Court into a church and dedicate it to St. Barabbas.”
“That was a narrow squeak for Master Sullivan,” said Beaumont to Sister Gertrude. He found her waiting at the Court door, as he passed out of it at the rising of the Court—to thank him, she said. “There’s nothing to thank me for. It’s you they’ve to thank. I’m afraid, if you are returning to Duskin’s Lodging House, you won’t find Pat there cultivating the domestic virtues. He’ll be celebrating his victory over the allied forces of the brutal and bloody Sassenach in his national beverage at the ‘Wheatsheaf.’ The police will keep a sharper eye on him than ever now, and I hope he won’t give them another chance yet awhile. We can’t hope for a Thomas Hoyleham and a Sister Gertrude in conjunction every day in the planetary system of police administration. However, sufficient for the day’s the evil thereof.”
“I hope better things for Pat and Nelly, Mr. Beaumont. I know how difficult it will be for him and Nelly to struggle out of their present surroundings; but I have faith.”
“Yes, you may have faith, Miss Fairfax; but I fear the surroundings will be stronger than your faith. I suppose environment has a lot to say to it. See! I don’t like the idea of Sullivan going and making a mess of it again after the way you’ve tried to save him. Can’t you get him and Nelly out of Duskin’s?”