"Do not mind. Grief makes people selfish," declared Felix.
"Probably we should not have acted so. I think we should have
hidden our sufferings and faced our duty; but perhaps we are
exceptional. I dare say Mrs. May will write and express regret and
gratitude later. We must allow for her youth and sorrow."

Mr. Fayre-Michell rather prided himself on the charity of this
conclusion.

When Mr. and Mrs. Travers departed, Sir Walter bade them farewell.
The lady wept, and her tears fell on his hand as he held it. She
was hysterical.

"For Heaven's sake don't let Mary be haunted by that dreadful
priest," she said. "There is something terrible about him. He
has no bowels of compassion. I tried to console him for the loss
of his son, and he turned upon me as if I were weak-minded."

"I had to tell him he was being rude and forgetting that he spoke
to a lady," said Ernest Travers. "One makes every allowance for a
father's sufferings; but they should not take the form of abrupt
and harsh speech to a sympathetic fellow-creature--nay, to anyone,
let alone a woman. His sacred calling ought to--"

"A man's profession cannot alter his manners, my dear Ernest; they
come from defects of temperament, no doubt. May must not be judged.
His faith would move mountains."

"So would mine," said Ernest Travers, "and so would yours, Walter.