"You can avoid all that," I replied.
"How?"
"Break down hopelessly and they'll all love you. That is the only road to popularity—to make a fool of yourself."
"I did that to-day," he said. "I made a most determined cast-iron resolution not to open my lips unless I was interrogated, but I could not stand that perkiness and self-sufficiency of Duff, especially when it developed into irreverence."
"If you had not spoken I should have challenged him; and I am not sure I would have been so polite as you were. The thing was unpardonable."
We dined at Father Letheby's. Just after dinner there was a timid knock at the door. He went out, and returned in a few minutes looking despondent and angry. I had heard the words from the hall:—
"She must give it up, your reverence. Her little chest is all falling in, and she's as white as a corpse."
"One of the girls giving up work at the machines," he replied. "She's suffering from chest trouble, it appears, from bending over this work."
"Who is she?" I queried.
"Minnie Carmody—that tall girl who sat near the door."