"I promise that I will hold to you," said the priest.
"Thank you, Father. If you will do that—you, the old mother, and one other—I am content," he said.
As the good priest left "The Mercury" in a particularly dejected frame of mind, he found Dr. Marsh waiting for him.
"Well?" he said. "A canard, I suppose?"
Father Healy made no reply.
"You don't mean to tell me——," cried the doctor.
"I believe he is a wronged man, but he refuses to speak."
"I must speak to him myself. Don't wait for me, Father. Just get away home, and pray that a miracle may put this straight."
Denis Quirk was still sitting as the priest had left him when Dr. Marsh burst in upon him, and plumped down on the chair that had been vacated by Father Healy.