y to practise the lessons they had
learned in the confessional. The priest had been removed to a higher
position, where he, more than ever, enjoyed the confidence of his
superiors, the respect of the people, and the love of his female penitents.

I never felt so embarrassed in my life as when at the table of that
cruelly-victimised man. We had hardly begun to take our dinner when he
asked me if I had known their late pastor, the amiable Rev. Mr. ----

I answered, "Yes, sir, I know him."

"Is he not a most accomplished priest?"

"Yes, sir, he is a most accomplished man," I answered.

"Why is it," rejoined the good merchant, "that the Bishop has taken him
away from us? He was doing so well here! He had so deservedly earned the
confidence of all by his piety and gentlemanly manners that we made every
effort to keep him with us. I drew up a petition myself, which all the
people signed, to induce the Bishop to let him remain in our midst; but in
vain. His lordship answered us that he wanted him for a more important
place on account of his rare ability, and we had to submit. His zeal and
devotedness knew no bounds. In the darkest and most stormy nights he was
always ready to come to the first call of the sick. I shall never forget
how quickly and cheerfully he responded to my appeal when, a few years ago,
I went, in the midst of one of our most chilly nights, to request him to
visit my wife, who was very sick."

At this stage of the conversation, I must confess that I nearly laughed
outright. The gratitude of that poor dupe of the confessional to the priest
who had come to bring shame and destruction to his house, and the idea of
that very man going himself to convey to his home the corrupter of his own
wife, seemed to me so ludicrous that, for a moment, I had to make a
superhuman effort to control myself.

But I was soon brought to my better senses by the shame which I felt at the
idea of the unspeakable degradation and secret infamy of the clergy of
which I was a member. At that instant hundreds of cases of similar, if not
greater, depravity, which had been revealed to me through the confessional,
came to my mind and distressed and disgusted me so much that my tongue was
almost paralyzed.

After dinner the merchant asked his lady to call the children, that I might
see them, and I could not but admire their beauty; but I do not need to say
that the pleasure of seeing those dear and lovely little ones was much
marred