Irish -- United States -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Runaway wives -- Fiction
The priest settled back in his seat. He saw that the crisis had passed.
There might be another outburst in the future, but it would not have the
intensity of the one he had just witnessed. He waited until Felix was
opposite his chair and then asked, in a low voice: “Well, may I not be
right, Mr. O'Day?”
Felix paused in his walk and gazed down at the priest. “I don't know,”
he answered slowly. “My head is not clear enough to think it out. Mrs.
Cleary might help unravel it. She saw her and will remember. Shall I
sound her when I go home--not to excite her suspicions, of course, but
so as to find out whether her visitor were large or small--details like
that?”
“No, I will ask her, and in a way not to make her suspect. She will
think I am hunting for one of my own people. It is wiser that she should
not know yet what you have told me. I would rather wait for the time
when this poor creature, whoever she is, needs a sister's tenderness.
She will get it there, for no finer woman lives than Kitty Cleary.”
A sigh of intense relief escaped Felix. “And now tell me where you will
begin your hunt?” he asked, one of his old search-light glances flashing
from beneath his brows.
“Nowhere in particular. On the East Side, perhaps, where I have means
of knowing what strangers come and go. Then among my own people here. I
shall know within twenty-four hours whether she has been in the habit of
attending evening service--that is, within the last six months. A woman
of the poorer class would be difficult to locate, but there should not
be the slightest trouble in picking out one who, less than a year ago,
occupied your wife's social position--no matter how badly she were
dressed.”
Felix stood musing. He had reached the limit of the help he had come
for.
“And what can I do to assist?”
“Nothing. Go home, and when I need you I will send word. Good night.”
Chapter XIII
Had Felix continued his visits to Stephen Carlin's shop, he might have
escaped many sleepless hours and saved himself many weary steps.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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