ir unsolved problems of life.
Oh, the poor, grief-stricken mothers who bent their tear-stained eyes
upon me as I preached the 'authority' of the Fathers! Well I knew
that, when I told them from my pulpit that their deceased infants, if
baptized, went straight to heaven, they blindly, madly accepted my
words! And when I went further and told them that their dead babes had
joined the ranks of the blessed, and could thenceforth be prayed to,
could I wonder that they rejoiced and eagerly grasped the false
message of cheer? They believed because they wanted it to be so. And
yet those utterances of mine, based upon the accepted doctrine of
Holy Church, were but narcotics, lulling those poor, afflicted minds
into a false sense of rest and security, and checking all further
human progress."

Lafelle shrugged his shoulders. "It is to be regretted," he said
coldly, "that such narrowness of view should be permitted to impede
the salvation of souls."

"Salvation--of--souls!" exclaimed Father Waite. "Ah, how many souls
have I not saved!--and yet I know not whether they or I be really
saved! Saved? From what? From death? Certainly not! From misery,
disease, suffering in this life? No, alas, no! Saved, then, from what?
Ah, my friend, saved only from the torments of a hell and a purgatory
constructed in the fertile minds of busy theologians!"

Lafelle turned to Carmen. "Some other day, perhaps--when it may be
more convenient for us both--and you are alone--"

Carmen laughed. "Don't quit the field, Monsignor--unless you surrender
abjectly. You started this controversy, remember. And you were quite
indiscreet, if you will recall."

Monsignor bowed, smiling. "You write my faults in brass," he gently
lamented. "When you publish my virtues, if you find that I am
possessed of any, I fear you will write them in water."

Carmen laughed again. "Your virtues should advertise themselves,
Monsignor."

"Ah, then do you not see in me the virtue of desiring your welfare
above all else, my child?"

"And the welfare of this great country, which you have come here to
assist in making dominantly Catholic, is it not so, Monsignor?"

Lafelle started slightly. Then he smiled genially back at the girl.
"It is an ambition which I am not ashamed to own," he returned
gently.

"But, Monsignor," Carmen continued earnestly, "are you not aware of
the inevitable failure of your mission? Do you not know that mediaeval
theology comports not with modern p