Christianity. He began dimly to
understand that the Papists were not half so much concerned in the
matter of cardinal doctrines of the faith as in asserting and
upholding the temporal as well as the spiritual power of the Pope;
and that this should be made the matter of the chiefest moment
filled the boy's soul with a loathing and disgust which were strong
enough to make him half a Protestant at once.

Sir Richard had seen almost as much, and was greatly interested in
the lad; but it was difficult to know how to help him in days when
parental authority was so absolute and so rigidly exercised.

"We must do what we can," said Sir Richard, waking from his reverie
and shaking his head. "But we must have patience too; and it will
not be well for the boy to irritate his father too greatly.
Tomorrow I will go to the Gate House and see my uncle, and speak
for the boy. He ought to have the liberty of the law, and the law
bids all men attend the services of the Established Church. But it
is ill work reasoning with a Papist of his type; and short of
reporting the case to the authorities, meaning more persecution for
my unlucky kinsman, I know not what may be done."

"We must strive so to win upon him by gentle means that he permits
his children free intercourse with ours," said gentle Lady Frances
from her seat by the glowing hearth. "It seems to me that that is
all we may hope to achieve in the present. Perchance as days and
weeks pass by we may find a way to that hard and flinty heart."

"And whilst we wait it may well be that Cuthbert will be goaded to
desperation, or be done to death by his remorseless sire," answered
impetuous Kate, who loved not counsels of prudence. "Methinks that
waiting is an ill game. I would never wait were I a man. I would
always aet--ay, even in the teeth of deadly peril. Sure the
greatest deeds have been achieved by men of action, not by men of
counsel and prudence."

Sir Richard smiled, as he stroked her hair, and told her she should
have lived a hundred or so years back, when it was the fashion to
do and dare regardless of consequences. And gradually the talk
drifted away from the inmates of the old Gate House, though Philip
was quite resolved to pay an early visit there on the morrow, and
learn how it had fared with his cousin.

Supper followed in due course, and was a somewhat lengthy meal.
Then the ladies retired to the stately apartment they had been in
before, and the mother read a ho