OUR FIRST SUNDAY. 43 



anathematize the whole concern, lay and clerical, 

 except the Sisters: they are perfect. Still I would 

 demur at wedding a Papist girl, with the beauty of 

 Venus and Ardenmohr for a dowery." 



" Ma foi ! I think I should venture, under such 

 persuasions, and, mayhap, try conversion," I said. 



" Yes, and find yourself vainly attempting to 

 make a rigid Protestant out of a simple Papist, be 

 spied in all your doings, your wife, perhaps, the 

 chief spy ; or, if loyal to your hearth, the victim of 

 priestly pumping and family persecution. Shun cette 

 galere altogether, my boy : to one like you, double- 

 dealing would be misery." 



" Eeally, Hope," I said, " you must go to Ireland 

 and lecture." 



"Not my metier at all ; nobody likes friendly dis- 

 cussion better, and I detest controversy, even if it did 

 good, which it never does. Time alone makes change 

 where there is fixed principle or prejudice ; indeed, if 

 conscience led Major Duncan and you to shave your 

 crowns, and shun salmon-fishing, I should hardly 

 dispute your notions." 



" So you have found, by experience, that the close 

 communication of Catholic and Protestant does not 

 politically smooth their angles ? " 



