All That Swagger by Miles Franklin — Read

Molly and Athol were at the hotel until old Macallister should show his hand. Hennessy was working the connection for all he could socially. Molly had her own suite in glory equal to that of Euphemia Fitzhugh, now shorn of a carriage. Euphemia, hearing of the half-dozen stations and endless flocks and herds of old Bandy--a widower--was looking forward to meeting him. She was, therefore, less hoity-toity to Molly, and Molly victorious, was not so touchy. Hennessy was beamingly hopeful. His unmentionable days having shown him the fibre of those in the stirrups,' he was determined to be among them, and believed in and depended upon push, though one sound thins in him was his appreciation of character. Delacy was a favourite with him. He was desirious of healing any lacerations, so wrote to Robert begging the favour of a few private words.

Hennessy was none of your ilhterate terriers. He had been a bright scholar at one of the little Hedge Schools born of the Penal Laws, where he had learned to read out of a Catholic prayer book lent to him by a soft-eyed, bare-footed maid with a shawl over her curls, and a dream in her eyes, which she had shared with young Kevin. She was to have been his, but his ability to read and write had later made him prominent in the Anti-Union agitation and resulted in his transportation. An untamable dislike to conform had earned him those shameful wales on his back, though he did not forget Brigid. When he had earned his ticket-f-leave, he wrote home, but an unknown parish priest replied that the family in question had perished during the famine. There had been another woman then, generous in concupiscence to the handsome young lag, and she had later dumped Molly on him. He had done his best for Molly, not so much because of her mother's generosity as for the memory of the little Brigid, who had died of hunger waiting for him, whose dream died with her. In its place came a hardy desire for power and consequence. Euphemia Fitzhugh was a possible stepping-stone in his ambition, which would not be helped by enmity with Robert Delacy, whom Fullwood, brother-in-law of Euphemia, was pursuing for his daughter.