"Gentlemen, only three at a time, if you please."

It was a curious thing to notice that those who had studied in Maynooth
were very much in favor of a Continental education; and those who had
been in foreign universities were rather inclined to give the verdict
for Maynooth.

"You see," said one, "it is an education in itself to go abroad. It
means expansion, and expansion is education. Then you have the immense
advantage of being able to learn and master the foreign languages and
literature, and nowadays a man that can't speak French at least is a
very helpless creature."

"You take it for granted," replied another, "that residence abroad
insures a knowledge of French. I spent six years in the seminary at
N----, and except _cela va sans dire, tant pis_, and a few other
colloquialisms, which you will find on the last page of an English
dictionary, I might as well have been in Timbuctoo."

"Well," said my curate,--and though he is not very popular, somehow or
other his words appear to carry great weight,--"I must confess that the
regret of my life is that I had not an opportunity of studying in Rome,
just as the hope of my life is that I shall see Rome before I die. I
consider that the greatest Irish college in the world, in numbers and in
the influence that arises from intellectual superiority, should be
somewhere within the shadows of the Seven Hills."

"Why not transfer the Dunboyne, with all its endowments and emoluments,
to Rome?" asked a young, eager fellow, who says he can read the Office,
going ten miles an hour on the bicycle.

"'T wouldn't ever do," said a Roman student; "you must be brought up in
Rome to understand its spirit. Transplanted shoots never thrive there."

"Psha!" said an old Maynooth man, who had been listening impatiently to
these suggestions; "we forgot more theology in Maynooth than you ever
learned."

"I don't want to disparage your knowledge of theology, Father," said my
curate, sweetly, "but you know there are other elements in priestly
education besides the mere propositions, and the _solvuntur objecta_ of
theology. And it is in Rome these subtle and almost intangible
accomplishments are acquired."

Now, this was getting a little warm; so I winked at a young fellow down
along the table, and he took the hint promptly, and cried out: "Look
here, Father Dan, this is tiresome. Tell us how you managed the Irish
Brigade in France in the fifties. Weren't they going to throw
Marseil