He remembered her young beauty and contrasted it with her appearance when he saw her in the "loanie" with her child. In a few years, he thought, she would be like any village woman, worn out, misshapen, tired, with gnarled knuckles and thickened hands. Already she had begun to neglect her hair....
"It's a damned shame," he murmured. "If she'd married me she'd have kept her looks!..."
"But she wouldn't marry me," he went on. "I wasn't man enough for her.... My God, I wish I was out of this!"
5
"Father," he said when he got home, "I'd like to go to London at once!"
"You can't go this minute, my son. There's no train the night!"
"I mean, I want to go as soon as possible!"
Mr. Quinn glanced sharply at him. "You're in a desperate hurry all of a sudden," he said. "What's up?"
"Nothing, father, only I want to get to work, and I can't work here!..."
"Restless, are you? I was hopin' you'd give me a bit of your company a while longer!..."