"I want to speak to you, Henry," the old man said, and then receiving no answer, he said again, "I want to speak to you, Henry!" "Yes, father?" Henry answered, without looking up. "Turn round a minute, Henry!..." He hesitated, and Henry turning round, saw that his father was embarrassed. "What is it, father?" he said. "I just wanted to say something to you, Henry. You see, you're beginnin' another life ... out of my control, if you follow me ... not that I ever tried to boss you...." "No, father, you've never done that. You've been awfully decent to me!" "Ah, now, no more of that! I just wanted to say somethin' to you, only I don't rightly know how to begin...." He fumbled for words and then, as if making a reckless plunge, he blurted out, "Do you know much, Henry?" "Know much?" Henry answered vaguely. "Aye. About women an' things? Did you know any women in Dublin?" "Oh, yes, a few!" Henry answered. "Did ... did you have anything to do with them?" "Anything to do with them!" "Aye!" Henry began to comprehend his father's questions. "Oh, I ... I kissed one or two of them!" he said. "Was that all?" Mr. Quinn's voice was so low that Henry had difficulty in hearing him. "Yes, father," he answered. "You know, don't you, that there's other things than kisses? Or do you not know it?" Henry nodded his head. "I'm ... I'm not interferin' with you, Henry. I'm not just askin' for the sake of askin' ... but ... well, do you know anything about those ... things?" He moved slightly as he spoke, as if, by moving, he could take the edge off his question. "I know about them, father. Something!" Henry said huskily, for his father's questions embarrassed him strangely. "You've never ... you've never!..." "No, father!" Mr. Quinn turned away and looked over the side of the boat. He seemed to be watching a piece of orange peel which floated between the wall and the side of the boat. The first bell of warning to friends of passengers was sounded, and he turned sharply and looked at his son. "I'll have to be goin' soon," he said. "That's only the first bell, father," Henry replied. "There's plenty of time yet!" "Aye!" Mr. Quinn glanced about the deck which was now covered by passengers. "You'll have plenty of company goin' over," he said. "Yes!" They were making conversation with difficulty. Mr. Quinn felt nervous and a little unhappy because Henry was leaving him so soon, and Henry felt disturbed because of the strange conversation he had just had with his father. He had a shamed sense of intrusion into privacies. "It's very interestin' to see a boat goin' out to sea," Mr. Quinn was saying. "I used to come down here many's a time when I was a young fellow just to watch the steamers goin' out. Did you ever stan' on top of a hill an' watch a boat sailin' out to sea?" "No, I don't remember doing that!"