mark. It was
a water-colored portrait done on ivory of the most delicate workmanship
and design, set in a fine gold case, delicately engraved, the whole
presenting an appearance of beauty, richly colored. She turned it over
and saw the letters J.A.M.A. interlaced over the triplet:

"Hours fly; flowers die;
New days, new ways,
Pass by. Love stays."

"It is very pretty," was her only comment.

"Hast no one told thee how well thou might appear in a ball gown?"

"I ne'er gave thought to such."

"Nor what an impression thou wouldst make at court?"

"Hast thou seen court beauties?"

She resolved to learn more about him.

"Aye! Oft have I been in their company."

"At St. James?"

"No. Much as I would have been pleased to. I know only Versailles."

So she thought he must be a French nobleman, who like Lafayette had
incurred the royal displeasure by running away from court to fit out a
vessel at his own expense in the hope of furthering the cause of the
Colonists. The great impulse given to the hopes of the disheartened
population by the chivalrous exploit of the latter, the sensation
produced both by his departure from Europe and by his appearance in this
country, might behold a glorious repetition in the person of this
unknown visitor.

Her interest accordingly grew apace.

"It was magnanimous of His Majesty to take our cause to his heart. We
can never fail in our gratitude."

"It is only natural for man to resist oppression. It has been written
that it is only the meek who should possess the land."

"An ideal which is often badly shattered by the selfish ambitions and
perverse passions of godless men."

"You are a Catholic?" he asked suddenly.

"I am proud of it."

"And your fellow patriots are of the same form of worship?"

"A goodly proportion of them."

"How many might you assume?"

"I scarce know. We have no method of compiling our numbers, not even our
total population."

"Surely there must be a great percentage, if one considers the influx
from France and England, not to mention Ireland, whence many fled from
persecution."

"I once heard Father Farmer say that there must be over seven thousand
Catholics in Pennsylvania, while Maryland has about fifteen thousand.
Whatever there remain are much scattered, except of course New York with
its thousand."

"I never dreamt they were so numerous! So great is the spirit of
intolerance, that the wonder is that a single Catholic wou