Grey Town Part 30

"I rule you out of order," answered the Mayor.

Denis began to read slowly and deliberately, but the opposing councillors prevented him with a babel of cries. The meeting finally broke up in great disorder, after Denis had attempted to make himself heard and had been escorted from the Council Chambers by the Town Clerk.

The following day he began his battle with Grey Town, a fight in which all fair-minded and right-thinking men conceded him a victory. He published the full account of the proceedings in the Goldenvale Court, ending in a triumphant acquittal, and the subsequent apology in "The Investigator." He also published the doc.u.ment purporting to be signed by George Haynes. It was an acknowledgment of the loan of a sum of money, equivalent to that which Haynes had paid for the land under offer to the Council, and a promise to repay the money at an exorbitant rate of interest to Garnett. Very few impartial men doubted the real meaning of the transaction.

But Garnett knew Grey Town. It was not a particularly moral town, but there were periods when it arose in virtuous indignation to punish the evil-doer, and it generally selected as its victim the man who was the least guilty. Denis Quirk was made the object of one of these outbursts of public morality. He was a man of dissolute morals, divorced under peculiar circ.u.mstances. Denis Quirk must be booted out of Grey Town.

The Quirks were at breakfast on the day that followed the scene in the Council Chambers; only Denis was absent. Samuel Quirk was reading "The Mercury" when his son's name caught his eye.

"What is this about Denis?" he cried; but as he read he wished he had not spoken, for he loved and respected his wife, notwithstanding his professed scorn for her.

"And what is it?" she asked.

"Never you mind. Denis can fight for himself," he answered.

"Just read it to me," she urged.

"What for would a woman be wanting to hear such things?" he answered, and thrust the paper in his pocket as he went out.

But Mrs. Quirk was determined to know. She had noted the frown on her husband's face, and gathered from it that he was reading ill news.

"Just slip out, Honey, and ask Joe for his copy. I must know the worst,"

she said to Kathleen.

"Mr. Quirk does not wish you to know," Kathleen suggested.

"Not knowing is worse than the very illest news. I will be in a fever until I hear. Just run away and do what I ask of you."

Kathleen recognised that Mrs. Quirk was determined, and wisely obeyed without further hesitation. But when she saw the nature of the charges she paused before reading them aloud to the old lady.

Denis Quirk, with his customary straightforwardness and honesty, had printed the account of the scene in the Council Chambers word for word.

There it stood--his own accusation and the counter-charges urged against him. He had attempted neither palliation nor excuse. But in the same issue of "The Mercury" he had reproduced the account of the proceedings in the Golden Vale Court, that had ended in his acquittal. More than this, he had reprinted the apology of "The Investigator," as it had appeared in that paper.

But to Kathleen and to Mrs. Quirk the account of the divorce proceedings was the most serious indictment against Denis, and here he offered neither denial nor excuse. Both women held firmly to the belief that marriage is sacred and irrevocable, and that no human power--nothing short of death--can annul the bond uniting man and wife.

Fearing to hurt her old friend, Kathleen attempted to avoid this part of the accusation. But she was a bad dissembler, and Mrs. Quirk very keen.

"There is something more, Honey. Let me hear all that those backbiters found to say," she urged.

When she had learned the full account of the charges, she burst out into lamentation.

"To think of it!" she cried. "Denis, the apple of my eye, to be in that Divorce Court! It is, for sure, the wickedest place ever invented by man--and him there!"

"But he did not appear," said Kathleen.

"And them saying all those things against him! Where was he, then, if not giving them back the lie? I don't believe it, not one word of it all. He has his enemies, and they have invented this. Oh, why isn't Father Healy here to advise me?"

"Why not go and ask Denis?" suggested Kathleen. "He will tell you the truth."

"Do you believe he did what they say of him?"

Kathleen looked out at the bright sky flecked with white clouds, at the green lawns, and the ma.s.ses of colour in the flower-beds. The sun was s.h.i.+ning brightly, scores of birds uniting in melody, music, brightness and peace everywhere.

"I would almost as soon believe that this world was not created by Almighty G.o.d," she answered, without disrespect, for she had a profound trust in Denis Quirk.

"G.o.d bless you, Honey! Then why should I be doubting him? I will go and speak to the boy. Sure, he never yet lied to me. If he has sinned, the Lord forgive him. And what am I to judge him?"

The motor was ordered at once, and in a short s.p.a.ce of time it carried Mrs. Quirk and Kathleen to "The Mercury" office. Tim O'Neill was in the outer office, bright-faced and very busy, as was his custom. He welcomed the ladies with a smile.

"Is Denis in?" asked Mrs. Quirk.

"Mr. Quirk? Yes, he is in. Were you wanting to see him?" Tim replied.

"Who else?" said Mrs. Quirk.

"I will stay here and talk to Tim," suggested Kathleen. "That is, if Tim can spare the time."

Tim was a gallant youth, and he answered blus.h.i.+ngly that it was an honour and pleasure to speak to Miss O'Connor. Meanwhile Mrs. Quirk entered her son's room.

Denis Quirk was reckoning up the consequences of the last night's proceedings, and considering the best method of carrying on the campaign. As his mother entered he looked up with a frown, that changed into a smile when he saw who his visitor was.

He had constantly urged her to inspect the office, but she had always refused to come.

"Sure, you are busy; and what would you be doing with an old body like me?" she was accustomed to say.

"So you have come to visit me at last?" he cried.

"I have come to talk to you, because I could not wait until you had come home," she answered. "What is this in the paper?"

He had hoped that she might not hear of his trouble, knowing how seldom she interested herself in the contents of a paper.

"Who has been telling you?" he asked.

"Who but himself at first, and when he would not satisfy me I ordered Kathleen to read it to me," she answered. "Oh, Denis, the shame of it!

That anyone should dare say that you were a divorced man!"

"It's the truth, mother," he answered through his teeth.

"You, the son I was always proud of, to be going into a place like that!

It is a shame that there should be such iniquitous places in a Christian land!" she cried.

Denis put his hand very gently on her shoulder in a caressing manner that was out of keeping with his accustomed att.i.tude.

"See here, mother," he answered, "a man can only be judged in the light of the Eternal Truth. In that light I am innocent."

"Then why not prove them liars that have spoken these things against you?" she asked.

"Someone had to suffer, and I could best bear it. I am a man, a strong, hard piece of humanity, and well able to stand a few bad names. But there are others, weak and frail, who would be destroyed by the scandal of bitter tongues. Better the world should abuse me than them. Some day I shall stand innocent in the eyes of the world as in the sight of G.o.d."