to appreciate
him again for another six months; so I do not think I shall be troubled
again."

Anthony was amazed, and said so.

"Well," said the other, "I was astonished too; and should never have
dreamt of appreciating him in such a manner unless he had proposed it. I
had a little difficulty with Mr. Blake, who told me that it was a
_libellum_, and that I should be ashamed to pay hush money. But I told
him that he might call it what he pleased, but that I would sooner pay
ten pounds a month and be in peace, than twenty pounds a month and be
perpetually harassed: and Father Robert agrees with me, and so the other
is content now."

The next day, which was Sunday, passed quietly. Mass was no doubt said
somewhere in the house; though Anthony saw no signs of it. He himself
attended the reverend doctor's ministrations in the morning; and found
him to be what he had been led to expect.

In the afternoon he walked up and down the lime avenue with Father
Robert, while the evening prayer and sermon rumbled forth through the
broken chancel window; and they talked of the Retreat and the
arrangements.

"You no doubt think, Mr. Norris," said the priest, "that I shall preach
at you in this Retreat, and endeavour to force you into the Catholic
Church; but I shall do nothing of the kind. The whole object of the
Exercises is to clear away the false motives that darken the soul; to
place the Figure of our Redeemer before the soul as her dear and adorable
Lover and King; and then to kindle and inspire the soul to choose her
course through the grace of God, for the only true final motive of all
perfect action,--that is, the pure Love of God. Of course I believe, with
the consent of my whole being, that the Catholic Church is in the right;
but I shall not for a moment attempt to compel you to accept her. The
final choice, as indeed the Retreat too, must be your free action, not
mine."

They arranged too the details of the Retreat; and Anthony was shown the
little room beyond Father Robert's bedroom, where the Exercises would be
given; and informed that another gentleman who lived in the neighbourhood
would come in every day for them too, but that he would have his meals
separately, and that Anthony himself would have his own room and the room
beneath entirely at his private disposal, as well as the little walled
garden to walk in.

The next day Mr. Buxton took Anthony a long ride, to invigorate him for
the Retreat that would beg