annot tell yet. Please God it may come
back. Oh! dear boy, in your heart you know it is true."

"Before God, in my heart I know that it is not true."

"No, no, no," she said; but the light died out of her eyes, and she
stretched a tremulous hand.

"Yes, Aunt Margaret, it is so. For years and years I have been doubting;
but I kept on just because it seemed to me the best religion; and--and I
would not be driven out of it by her Grace's laws against my will, like a
dog stoned from his kennel."

"But you are only a lad still," she said piteously. He laughed a little.

"But I have had the gift of reason and discretion nearly twenty years, a
priest would tell me. Besides, Aunt Margaret, I could not be such a--a
cur--as to come back without believing. I could never look Isabel in the
eyes again."

"Well, well," said the old lady, "let us wait and see. Do you intend to
be here now for a while?"

"Not while Isabel is like this," he said. "I could not. I must go away
for a while, and then come back and ask her again."

"When will she decide?"

"She told me by next Easter," said Hubert. "Oh, Aunt Margaret, pray for
us both."

The light began to glimmer again in her eyes.

"There, dear boy," she said, "you see you believe in prayer still."

"But, aunt," said Hubert, "why should I not? Protestants pray."

"Well, well," said the old nun again. "Now you must come to your mother;
and--and be good to her."

CHAPTER V

THE COMING OF THE JESUITS

The effect on Anthony of Mr. Buxton's conversation was very considerable.
He had managed to keep his temper very well during the actual interview;
but he broke out alone afterwards, at first with an angry contempt. The
absurd arrogance of the man made him furious--the arrogance that had
puffed away England and its ambitions and its vigour--palpable evidences
of life and reality, and further of God's blessing--in favour of a
miserable Latin nation which had the presumption to claim the possession
of Peter's Chair and of the person of the Vicar of Christ! Test it, said
the young man to himself, by the ancient Fathers and Councils that Dr.
Jewel quoted so learnedly, and the preposterous claim crumbled to dust.
Test it, yet again, by the finger of Providence; and God Himself
proclaimed that the pretensions of the spiritual kingdom, of which the
prisoner in the cell had bragged, are but a blasphemous fable. And
Anthony re