Will you?"
"A dying confession--" began the priest.
"Yes, but I know--" broke in Mary. "I saw them fight, and I heard
Jimmy till Dannie that he'd lied to him to separate us, but he
turned right around and took it back and I knew Dannie belaved him
thin; but he can't after Jimmy confissed it again to both of you."
"What do you mean by `saw them fight?'" Father Michael was leaning
toward Mary anxiously.
Mary told him.
"Then that is the explanation to the whole thing," said the priest.
"Dannie did believe Jimmy when he took it back, and he died before he
could repeat to Dannie what he had told me. And I have had the feeling
that Dannie thought himself in a way to blame for Jimmy's death."
"He was not! Oh, he was not!" cried Mary Malone. "Didn't I live
there with them all those years? Dannie always was good as gold to
Jimmy. It was shameful the way Jimmy imposed on him, and spint his
money, and took me from him. It was shameful! Shameful!"
"Be calm! Be calm!" cautioned Father Michael. "I agree with you. I
am only trying to arrive at Dannie's point of view. He well might
feel that he was responsible, if after humoring Jimmy like a child
all his life, he at last lost his temper and dealt with him as if
he were a man. If that is the case, he is of honor so fine, that he
would hesitate to speak to you, no matter what he suffered. And
then it is clear to me that he does not understand how Jimmy
separated you in the first place."
"And lied me into marrying him, whin I told him over and over how
I loved Dannie.
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