“They were in the garden in an arbor, engaged in a controversy. In his anger he struck the old gentleman and knocked him 53down, and would have killed him had not others interfered.”
A silence followed, not broken by Father Burke. He desired his listener to realize the iniquity of the deed.
At last she inquired half timidly:
“And there was no provocation?”
“None whatever.”
After another pause she said, reflectively:
“The father had a temper too, I fancy, from what I know of him.”
Toward the face beside him the priest cast a sidelong look, which was detected.
“I am not defending the son,” she said hastily. “Heaven forbid! I almost hate him. But you must admit that the father was not an especially lovable character, nor very gentle in his ways.”
“He had his faults, like the rest of us; but he was a rare man,–a religious man of deep convictions, and the soul of honor.”