By this time the whole parish knew about the affair at the Club. Like all reports, it increased in the telling until there was the general impression that the Club was a pack of rowdies. Many a father and mother wondered why Father Boone tolerated such an organization.
"I thought these boys were in good keeping," said one mother to another.
"Yes, and it's worse than we know of," replied the other, "for I tried to get at the facts from my Johnnie, but he was as close as a clam. Unless it was something dreadful, he wouldn't mind telling his mother."
The fact was that the boys had reached an understanding not to talk about the affair at all. They were determined to clear the Club's name and until they had something definite to offer, explanations, they decided, had best be omitted. So 'mum' was the word.
Mrs. Mulvy was returning from early Mass, that morning, when Mrs. Doyle, a woman she highly regarded, stopped her to say that it was too bad that Frank was mixed up in the row at the Club. Mrs. Mulvy only smiled and remarked that she thought there must be some mistake. But a little later in the day, Mrs. Duffy called on her and after a few conventional remarks, said "I really think it is too bad, Mrs. Mulvy, that those boys should be up to such mischief."
"Why, what do you refer to, Mrs. Duffy?"
"I thought you knew all about it—that wholesale smash-up at the Club. Surely it was disgraceful. Furniture broken, the pictures and walls disfigured and the whole house ransacked. It's a wonder some of them were not arrested."
This was news to Mrs. Mulvy. She had heard Father Boone call the doings at the Club serious, but she supposed that they were only serious in his eyes, because of the high standard he had set for the boys. Now she heard for the first time of wholesale damage, of wrecked rooms and furniture! "Are you sure of all this?" she inquired.
Mrs. Duffy replied, "It must be so, for everybody is talking about it." Then she added, "But my boy, George, won't open his mouth about it. It must be bad if he is afraid to let me know. I am going to take him to the priest tonight and find out all about it, and if he had a hand in it—well, he'll wish he hadn't."
Mrs. Mulvy was too confused to speak. She had wondered why Father Boone was so stern when he addressed Frank as "sir." Also she had wondered at Frank's intense emotion on that occasion. "So it was really serious," she reflected. "And gossip is getting Frank all mixed up with it!"