"

Isabel looked at Mistress Margaret a moment, and then turned back again
to the window in silence.

At another time they had a word or two about Peter's prerogatives.

"Surely," said Isabel suddenly, as they walked together in the garden,
"Christ is the one Foundation of the Church, St. Paul tells us so
expressly."

"Yes, my dear," said the nun, "but then Christ our Lord said: 'Thou art
Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.' So he who is the only
Good Shepherd, said to Peter, 'Feed My sheep'; and He that is _Clavis
David_ and that openeth and none shutteth said to him, 'I will give
thee the keys, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven.' That is why we call Peter the Vicar of Christ."

Isabel raised her eyebrows.

"Surely, surely----" she began.

"Yes, my child," said Mistress Margaret, "I know it is new and strange to
you; but it was not to your grandfather or his forbears: to them, as to
me, it is the plain meaning of the words. We Catholics are a simple folk.
We hold that what our Saviour said simply He meant simply: as we do in
the sacred mystery of His Body and Blood. To us, you know," she went on,
smiling, with a hand on the girl's arm, "it seems as if you Protestants
twisted the Word of God against all justice."

Isabel smiled back at her; but she was puzzled. The point of view was new
to her. And yet again in the garden, a few months later, as they sat out
together on the lawn, the girl opened the same subject.

"Mistress Margaret," she said, "I have been thinking a great deal; and it
seems very plain when you talk. But you know our great divines could
answer you, though I cannot. My father was no Papist; and Dr. Grindal and
the Bishops are all wise men. How do you answer that?"

The nun looked silently down at the grass a moment or two.

"It is the old tale," she said at last, looking up; "we cannot believe
that the babes and sucklings are as likely to be right in such matters as
the wise and prudent--even more likely, if our Saviour's words are to be
believed. Dear child, do you not see that our Lord came to save all men,
and call all men into His Church; and that therefore He must have marked
His Church in such a manner that the most ignorant may perceive it as
easily as the most learned? Learning is very well, and it is the gift of
God; but salvation and grace cannot depend upon it. It needs an architect
to understand why Paul's Church is strong and beautiful,