turning."

"A melancholy history, anyhow," answered Charles; "most melancholy, if
this is true."

"Rather," said Vincent, setting him right, as if he had simply made a
verbal mistake, "a most happy termination, you mean; the only thing that
was left for him to do. You know he went abroad. Any one who is
inclined to Romanize should go abroad; Carlton, we shall be sending you
soon. Here things are softened down; there you see the Church of Rome as
it really is. I have been abroad, and should know it. Such heaps of
beggars in the streets of Rome and Naples; so much squalidness and
misery; no cleanliness; an utter want of comfort; and such superstition;
and such an absence of all true and evangelical seriousness. They push
and fight while Mass is going on; they jabber their prayers at railroad
speed; they worship the Virgin as a goddess; and they see miracles at
the corner of every street. Their images are awful, and their ignorance
prodigious. Well, Willis saw all this; and I have it on good authority,"
he said mysteriously, "that he is thoroughly disgusted with the whole
affair, and is coming back to us."

"Is he in England now?" asked Reding.

"He is said to be with his mother in Devonshire, who, perhaps you know,
is a widow; and he has been too much for her. Poor silly fellow, who
would not take the advice of older heads! A friend once sent him to me;
I could make nothing of him. I couldn't understand his arguments, nor he
mine. It was no good; he would make trial himself, and he has caught
it."

There was a short pause in the conversation; then Vincent added, "But
such perversions, Carlton, I suppose, thinks to be as necessary as
parties in a pure Protestant Church."

"I can't say you satisfy me, Carlton," said Charles; "and I am happy to
have the sanction of Mr. Vincent. Did political party make men rebels,
then would political party be indefensible; so is religious, if it
leads to apostasy."

"You know the Whigs _were_ accused in the last war," said Sheffield, "of
siding with Bonaparte; accidents of this kind don't affect general rules
or standing customs."

"Well, independent of this," answered Charles, "I cannot think religious
parties defensible on the considerations which justify political. There
is, to my feelings, something despicable in heading a religious party."

"Was Loyola despicable," asked Sheffield, "or St. Dominic?"

"They had the sanction of their superiors," said Charles.

"You are hard