"I don't need any pay, sir," said Tim O'Neill. "I'll work for nothing, just for the love of you and the old 'Mercury'."
"Good boy, Tim! You are gold from the hair of your head to the soles of your feet. But I shall go to Melbourne and open out there. Once I am out, 'The Mercury' will have a fair run, and Ebenezer Brown, Gerard, and Garnett will be sorry they invested their money in a hopeless cause. You shall buy me out, Dad."
The day before Denis Quirk's departure he found Kathleen alone in the dining room.
"Miss O'Connor," he said, speaking less confidently than was his custom. "I am not an idealist. As a general rule I class men and women as bad or indifferent, but I have a great respect for you, and I want you to believe in me."
"I do," cried Kathleen eagerly.
"Men have been tried and convicted on false evidence," he went on. "The world judges us by results, but I want you to disregard the past and take my word that I am innocent."
"I have always believed it," she said.
"Thank you," he said, and was turning away when Kathleen said:
"You are going to Melbourne, Mr. Quirk. I place Desmond in your hands. Bring him back to the Faith."
"I shall do my best, but no man can constrain another. Desmond must work out his own salvation," he answered.