 O'Reilly cabled Piddington to clarify this, and as a result of Piddington's reply, "In sympathy with supremacy of Commonwealth powers", Hughes appointed him to the Australian High Court.As a result of opposition to his appointment and his belief that he was compromised by the exchange of cables he resigned without sitting in court.In 1913 O'Reilly published "Tears and Triumph", an expanded short story rather than a novel, in which O'Reilly shows a penetrating knowledge of the feminine view-point.