the Church isn't established?"

"I mean that no religious test is demanded of officers of state,
and that bishops and abbots have no seat in Parliament. It was the
enfranchisement of women that turned the tide once and for all."

"Do you mean that all women have the vote?"

"They are under the same conditions as men. There's a severe
educational test now, of course. Not more than about one in
seventy adults ever get the vote at all. But the result is that
we're governed by educated persons."

"Stop. Is it a Monarchy?"

"Certainly. Edward IX--a young man--is on the throne."

"Go on."

"Christianity, then, holds the field. Of course there are
infidels left, who write letters to the newspapers sometimes, and
hold meetings, and so on. But they are practically negligible. As
regards Church property, practically everything has finally been
given back to us;--I mean in the way of buildings, and, very
largely, revenues too. All the cathedrals are ours, and all
parish churches built before the Reformation, as well as all
other churches in parishes where there was not organized
Protestant resistance."

"I thought you said there were no Protestants."

Father Jervis suddenly laughed aloud.

"Monsignor, are you really serious? Do you really mean you
wish me to go on?"

"Good God, man! I'm not playing a game. . . . Go on, please. Tell
me about the Protestants."

"Well, of course there are some Protestants left. I think they've
got four or five churches in London, and . . . and . . . yes, I'm
sure of it, they've got some kind of bishop. But really I
scarcely know. I shall have to look it up."

"Well, go on."

"Well, that's the state of England. Practically everybody is a
Catholic--from the King downwards. The last remains of Church
property was only actually given back to us last year. That's why
the monks haven't come back to Westminster yet."

"What about the rest of the world?"

"Well, first Rome. Austria drove out the House of Savoy nearly
twenty-five years ago; and the Holy Father----"

"What's his name?"

"Gregory the Nineteenth. He's a Frenchman. Well, the Holy
Father is Temporal Ruler of the whole of Italy; but the Emperor
of Austria administers it. Then France is, of course, a very
small country."

"Why small?"

"Well, you know the European War of 1914 . . .?" Monsignor
interrupted by a large sigh.

"Good heavens!" he said. "How I shall have to read. I'm sorry.
Go on, please."

"Well, France