"Is it you, Dad?" he asked. "I fancied you would come to me. I have been a disgrace to you!"
Denis did not answer, fearing to break the chain of thought that had taken his friend back to his childish days.
"A disgrace to you and to the O'Connors," Desmond continued. "Didn't you tell me that in the dark days the O'Connors clung to the Faith; that never a one of them ever fell away? Well, I have been the first; just from pique, dad; pique and pride.... Why don't you speak to me?"
Still did Denis refrain from answering him, and Desmond continued:
"But I begin to see again. It was all darkness for a time ... after Sylvia had left me hopeless.... Where is Sylvia?"
He turned his head to search the room.
The nurse, hearing the name by which he addressed her, entered the room, and stood beside his bed.
"Ah, there she is! Don't go away from me, Sylvia."
"Only into the next room," she answered.
"Yes, that will do.... Isn't she splendid, dad?... I intend to come round, when I am well again, to make my peace with God, and live like an O'Connor.... Why don't you send for a priest?" he asked, in an irritable voice.