i f6c06dd9cf3fe221 by Unknown (the false prince .TXT) 📕

was quite simple really, just a few words and everything was altered.

Sarah dropped quietly into Tim's chair. Rodney stared across the width of the table at Kate. Why was it, he thought, that her face always swam towards him; no matter what the distance, it seemed to bridge it until he

felt it near his own, warming him with its radiance. She seemed more beautiful than ever today because she looked sad. It was only a week since he had seen her. He had tried to keep away from the Tolmaches'

after his attendance on old Rex was no longer necessary, but it had been so easy to drop in to tea, once in a while, knowing that shed be there. Only the once in a while had become a regular habit. Last week she had presided over tea. Sitting proudly beside Miss Tolmache, she had joined in the general conversation, and he had seen her in a new light, quite at ease, laughing and talking generally. She never wore uniform, but a grey dress with a white collar which gave her a Quakerish air. He had felt she was glad he had seen her thus, and had noted the pride with which old Bernard always watched her, and the tenderness in her eyes when she looked at old Bernard or cleverly turned some remark, purposely set by him to be parried. And now, what was she saying?

Kate thought, he's not listening to me . he's got to listen:

"Doctor, I think it would be better if you gave Annie no more presents." She swallowed hard and forced herself to meet his eyes.

"It has been most kind of you, and I am grateful.... But now... well, Patrick thinks... well, we won't be quite in the position to buy her these kind of things." She pointed to the box on the table.

"Patrick says..."

"Yes, Patrick says," said Rodney in a cold voice; 'go on. " His mind raced ... what has made her do this? ... Something has happened....

Who is this Patrick?

Sarah looked from one to the other. Oh, what was this? What was this?

Why didn't Kate speak? Why were they standing looking at one another like that? And it couldn't be true about Patrick Delahuntyl Only last week she had laughed the idea to scorn. He had haunted the house for days, asking about her and when she was coming home. And look how often she had had to tell him Kate had gone back to Westoe, when shed been sitting upstairs all the time. He'd been after her for a year now, and she wouldn't even look at him . her Kate and Pat Delahunty!

He was a nice enough fellow . but not for her Kate. Oh no!

"You were saying you were going to be married," said Rodney, his words falling like tinkling ice; 'and Patrick says. What does Patrick say?

"

His eyes were black and hard and were boring into her. A quiver passed over Kate's face. She couldn't carry it through, she couldn't, she couldn't. Why must he . ? It wasn't fair. And, oh, he looked so hurt! She dropped her head.

In the months to come she was to ask herself what they would have done had not Father O'Malley walked in the back-door at that moment accompanied by her cousin Connie from Jarrow. The strident voice and loud, senseless laughter of Connie as she bid everyone "A merry Christmas' might have slackened the tension if Father O'Malley had been the loving, trusting Christian that his doth proclaimed. But he prided himself that he knew human nature and the baseness therein, and between Kate Hannigan and this doctor, whom he had grown to hate, having been forced to listen to his views across the table of the boardroom in the workhouse, he sensed baseness like a hungry dog.

If Sarah could have put into dear thought her intuitive knowledge of the priest she would have been astounded and not a little frightened, and he, if he could have read her mind, would have credited her with possessing supernatural gifts.

"Happy Christmas, Connie," said Sarah to her niece; 'and to you.

Father. It's well you've come at this minute, you're just in time to hear the news. Kate here . well. she's going to be married. "

"Married 1 Oh, Kate!" yelled Connie.

"And who are you going to marry, Kate?" asked the priest, in a tone of polite enquiry.

Kate regarded him steadily. From now on he would think he had a tight hand on her life. "Patrick Delahunty," she replied quietly.

The pin-points of the priest's eyes widened through his glasses:

"Patrick Delahunty... well, well! I'm surprised at your common sense.... A good, steady-going. God-fearing man; you've done well for yourself."

Kate's head went up, a look flashing from her eyes, which the priest read only too well.

"I've never known him miss mass," he went on; 'nor the altar rails on a Sunday morning for the three years he's been over here. He'll be a great influence on Annie. "

"Oh, are you going, doctor?" said Sarah.

"I'll show you out."

"That's quite all right, Mrs. Hannigan," said Rodney.

"Good morning."

He inclined his head towards Connie, where she stood, strangely quiet since she had heard the name of the man Kate was going to marry.

"Good morning," he said to her, and, looking at neither Kate nor the priest, he went out through the front-room.

Father O'Malley watched Kate's gaze follow him. Patrick Delahunty, he thought; there's something funny here. Why, I was talking to him at nine o'clock this morning and he said nothing to me. His mind suddenly switched to the doctor. That man's dangerous, I'm never mistaken; and this one, she's ripe for the Devil; and she's too