hat in France you
have entered the rope of republicanism at the wrong end. In Ameriky, we
even put religion before dollars; and if that isn't convincing I'll give
it up. Now, I do wish you could see a Sunday once in the Granite State,
Signorina Ghita, that you might get some notion what our western
religion ra'ally is."

"All real religion--all real devotion to God--is, or ought to be, the
same, Signor Ithuello, whether in the east or in the west. A Christian
is a Christian, let him live or die where he may."

"That's not exactly platform, I fancy. Why, Lord bless ye, young lady,
_your_ religion, now, is no more like _mine_ than my religion is like
that of the Archbishop of Canterbury's, or Monsieur Rule's, here!"

"_La mienne_!" exclaimed Raoul--"I pretend to none, _mon brave_; there
can be no likeness to nothing."

Ghita's glance was kind, rather than reproachful; but it was profoundly
sorrowful.

"In what can our religion differ," she asked, "if we are both
Christians? Americans or Italians, it is all the same."

"That comes of knowing nothing about Ameriky," said Ithuel, filled with
the conceit of his own opinion of himself and of the part of the world
from which he came. "In the first place, you have a Pope and cardinals
and bishops and all such things in your religion, while we have none."

"Certainly, there is the Holy Father, and there are cardinals; but they
are not my religion," answered Ghita, looking surprised. "Bishops, it is
true, are appointed of God and form part of his church; and the bishop
of Rome is the head of the church on earth, but nothing more!"

"Nothing more! Don't you worship images, and take off and put on
garments at your prayers, and kneel down in a make-believe, profane
way: and don't you turn everything into vain ceremonies?"

Had Ithuel been engaged, body and soul, in maintaining one of the
propositions of the Oxford Tracts' controversy, he could not have
uttered these words with greater zeal or with a more self-righteous
emotion. His mind was stored with the most vulgar accusations of an
exceedingly vulgar set of sectarian distinctions; and he fancied it a
high proof of Protestant perfection to hold all the discarded usages in
abhorrence. On the other hand, Ghita listened with surprise; for, to
her, the estimation in which the rites of the Roman church are held by
the great bulk of Protestants was a profound secret. The idea of
worshipping an image never crossed her innocent