"Are your affairs in order, Brown?"
"Mind your own business, sub-dividing men into small allotments," snapped the other.
"I should arrange everything if I were you. Your money won't buy you a passport," said the doctor. "Increase your subscription to the hospital from threepence to sixpence, and lower your rents to twice what they should be, before it is too late. Your time will come before long."
"You won't get a penny of my money, living or dead," replied Ebenezer Brown.
"That shows you have a little wisdom remaining, for I would poison you, and believe I was performing an act of public utility."
"Let us get to business," cried the priest, anxious to terminate the wrangle. "Dr. Marsh and I am here to discuss what is to be done with Michael O'Connor's children."
"I am here to help the children," said Ebenezer. "Not with money," he added hastily, "but with sound advice."
"The only thing you ever gave away," commented the doctor.
"Eh? Yes; it is more valuable than money," said Ebenezer, relapsing into deafness. "Now, Desmond there will have to work. He has been idle too long."
To this remark Kathleen replied hastily: