Part 46 (1/2)

”He's turned,” said Morty. ”No less! Turned! He's what his father was before him, Mr. Sullivan--come back to Holy Church, and not a morning but Father O'Hara's with him making his soul and what not!”

”Turned!” Uncle Ulick cried. ”Luke Asgill, the Justice? Boys, you're making fun of me!” And, unable to believe what the O'Beirnes told him, he looked to Flavia for confirmation.

”It is true,” she said.

”Bedad, it is?” Uncle Ulick replied. ”Then I'll not be surprised in all my life again! More by token, there's only one thing left to hope for, my jewel, and that's certain. Cannot you do the same to the man that's beside you?”

Flavia glanced quickly at Colonel John, then, with a heightened colour, she looked again at Uncle Ulick. ”That's what I cannot do,” she said.

But the blush, and the smile that accompanied it, and something perhaps in the way she hung towards her neighbour as she turned to him, told Uncle Ulick all. The big man smacked the table with his hand till the platters leapt from the board. ”Holy poker!” he cried, ”is it that you're meaning? And I felt it, and I didn't feel it, and you sitting there forenent me, and prating as if b.u.t.ter wouldn't melt in your mouth! It is so, is it? But there, the red of your cheek is answer enough!”

For Flavia was blus.h.i.+ng more brightly than before, and Colonel John was smiling, and the two young men were laughing openly.

”You must get Flavia alone,” Colonel John said, ”and perhaps she'll tell you.”

”Bedad, it's true, and I felt it in the air,” Ulick Sullivan answered, smiling all over his face. ”Ho, ho! Ho, ho! Indeed you've not been idle while I've been away. But what does Father O'Hara say, eh?”

”The Father----” Flavia began in a small voice.

”Ay, what does the Father say?”