a soul_ will pass into a spiritual existence, the
other half will go and mingle with the winds that blow, and the trees
that grow, and the waters that flow, in this world of material
elements....

Do I remember Widmore, you ask me. Yes, truly.... I remember the gay
colors of the flowerbeds, and the fine picturesque trees in the garden,
and the shady quietness of the ground-floor rooms....

You ask me how I have replaced Margery. Why, in many respects, if indeed
not in all, very indifferently; but I could not help myself. Her leaving
me was a matter of positive necessity, and some things tend to reconcile
me to her loss. I believe she would have made S---- a Catholic. The
child's imagination had certainly received a very strong impression from
her; and soon after her departure, as I was hearing S---- her prayers,
she begged me to let her repeat that prayer to "the blessed Virgin,"
which her nurse had taught her. I consider this a direct breach of faith
on the part of Margery, who had once before undertaken similar
instructions in spite of distinct directions to interfere in no way with
the child's religious training.

The proselytizing spirit of her religion was, I suppose, stronger than
her conscience, or rather, was the predominant element in it, as it is
in all very devout Catholics; and the opportunity of impressing my
little girl with what she considered vital truth, not to be neglected;
and upon this ground alone I am satisfied that it is better she should
have left me, for though it would not mortally grieve me if hereafter my
child were conscientiously to embrace Romanism, I have no desire that
she should be educated in what I consider erroneous views upon the most
momentous of all subjects.

I have been more than once assured, on good authority, that it is by no
means an infrequent practice of the Roman Catholic Irish women employed
as nurses in American families, to carry their employers' babies to
their own churches and have them baptized, of course without consent or
even knowledge of their parents. The secret baptism is duly registered,
and the child thus smuggled into the pope's fold, never, if possible,
entirely lost sight of by the priest who administered the regenerating
sacrament to it. The saving of souls is an irresistible motive,
especially when the saving of one's own is much facilitated by the
process.

The woman I have in Margery's place is an Irish Protestant, a very good
and conscientious