Mrs. Duffy continued hesitatingly, "I thought I'd come over to see you first, Mrs. Mulvy, because they all say that Frank is the only one who owned up to knowing anything about it."
Mrs. Mulvy caught her breath. However, she answered, composedly enough, "I should be sorry to know that my boy was really in such awful mischief, but if he was, I am proud that he owned up to it. It is boy-like to get into a scrape, but it is very noble to stand up and admit it."
"I feel that way myself, Mrs. Mulvy. If George was in it, he will have to own up to it, but I am sorry that he did not do so of his own accord. George is a good boy, though, I never knew him to do anything that I was ashamed of before," said Mrs. Duffy wistfully, as she took her leave. Mrs. Mulvy almost collapsed as she sank into a chair.
For a few moments she was in a state of distraction. At length she sighed, "Poor Frank!" After a while, she arose and went to a little shrine of the Blessed Virgin which she called her oratory. Here it was that the whole family knelt every night to say the rosary together. Here it was that each one said morning prayers before leaving the house for the day's occupations. She had consecrated all her children to the Blessed Mother, and begged her powerful protection for them. The Mother of God had been a good Mother to her devoted children, and so far Mrs. Mulvy had realized that devotion to Christ's Mother was one of the greatest safeguards of virtue. She knelt before the image of the Blessed Mother and prayed, "Mother of God, to whose care I have entrusted the little ones He has given me, be more than ever a Mother to my children now. Especially take under thy protection my good boy Frank. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen."
When she arose she had decided to make no inquiries of Father Boone, nor would she have any misgivings about her boy. She would trust him.
(II)
On his way to school the same morning, Frank was stopped a number of times and asked, "What was that scrape you got into, Mulvy?" At first, he laughed it off. But gradually it irritated him, as one after another referred to it. It was his custom to make a visit to the church every morning on his way to school. This morning he went straight to the altar of the Blessed Virgin and prayed fervently that in this trying situation he would do nothing displeasing to her or her Son. He also begged her that she would be a Mother to his mother and help her in this hour of trial. Arising from prayer he felt that he could submit to misunderstanding or even injustice, and do it patiently.
On leaving the church he met Tommy and Dick also coming out.
"Gee!" exclaimed Dick, "you are in for it, Hank. Everybody says that you are the cause of the Club damage. The fellows are saying nothing, but one or two must have leaked, for it's all over the parish that you admitted you were in it."
"Yes," added Tommy, "I nearly got into a fight denying that you had a part in the matter."