As I told you once before, David, I am not a Catholic, nor a Church-of-England man, nor of any religion that wears a name, and yet I accepted a little of them all into my own creed.
A wandering Missioner--and I am such a one--must obliterate to an extent his own deep-souled convictions and accept indulgently all articles of Christian faith; and there is one law, above all others, which he must hold inviolate.

He must not pry into the past of the dead, nor speak aloud the secrets of the living.

Let us forget Tavish." His words sounded a knell in David's heart.

If he had hoped that Father Roland would, at the very last, tell him something more about Tavish, that hope was now gone.

The Missioner spoke in a voice that was almost gentle, and he came to David and put a hand on his shoulder as a father might have done with a son.