y well," said the old priest, smiling.
"I think every one was interested. It's not often that we can
hear such a clear analysis of events. Of course Manners has it
all at his fingers' ends. It's his special subject, and----"

"But the amazing thing to me," interrupted the other, "is that this
isn't just a dream or a prophecy, but a relation of facts. . . . Do
you mean to tell me that the whole world is Christian?"

The priest looked at him doubtfully.

"Monsignor, surely your memory isn't----"

Monsignor made an impatient gesture.

"Father," he said, "it's exactly as I told you before lunch. I'll
promise to tell you if my memory comes back. At present I
remember practically nothing at all, except instinctively. All I
know is that this story we have heard simply astounds me. I had a
sort of idea that Christianity was ebbing from the world; that
most thinking men had given up all belief in it; and now I find
it's exactly the other way. Please treat me as if I had stepped
straight out of the beginning of the century. Just tell me the
facts as if for the first time. Is it really true that
practically the whole world is Christian?"

The priest hesitated.

"You mean that, Monsignor?"

"Certainly."

"Very well, then." He paused again. "But it's extraordinarily
hard to know where to begin."

"Begin anywhere. It's all new to me."

"Very good. Well, yes: roughly we may say that the world is
Christian, in the same sort of way, at least, in which Europe was
Christian, say in the twelfth century. There are survivals, of
course, particularly in the East, where large districts still
cling to their old superstitions; and there are even eminent men
here and there who are not explicitly Catholics; but, as a whole,
the world is Christian."

"Do you mean Catholic?"

The priest stared a moment.

"Why, yes. What else---?"

"All right; go on."

"Well then, to begin with England. Catholicism is not yet
established as the State Religion; but it'll only be a question
of time, and it may be said that all the laws are Christian."

"Divorce?"

"Divorce was abolished thirty years ago, and fornication was made
a felony ten years later," said the priest quietly. "Benefit of
clergy also was restored three years ago; and we have our own
courts for heresy, with power to hand over convicted criminals to
the secular arm."

"What?"

"Certainly. It has been in force now for three years."

"Then what do you mean by saying that