h I should suspect not much
good."

Maggie was silent.

"Just tell Master Laurie not to play tricks," said the priest. "He's
got a good, sensible friend in Mr. Morton. I can see that. And don't
trouble your head too much about it, my child."

* * * * *

When Maggie was gone, he went out to finish his cigar, and found to
his pleasure that it was still alight, and after a puff or two it went
very well.

He thought about his interview for a few minutes as he walked up and
down, taking the bright winter air. It explained a good deal. He had
begun to be a little anxious about this boy. It was not that Laurie
had actually neglected his religion while at Stantons; he was always
in his place at mass on Sundays, and even, very occasionally, on
weekdays as well. And he had had a mass said for Amy Nugent. But even
as far back as the beginning of the previous year, there had been an
air about him not altogether reassuring.

Well, this at any rate was a small commentary on the present
situation.... (The priest stopped to look at some bulbs that were
coming up in the bed beside him, and stooped, breathing heavily, to
smooth the earth round one of them with a large finger.)... And as for
this Spiritualistic nonsense--of course the whole thing was a trick.
Things did not happen like that. Of course the devil could do
extraordinary things: or at any rate had been able to do them in the
past; but as for Master Laurie Baxter--whose home was down there in
the hamlet, and who had been at Oxford and was now reading law--as for
the thought that this rather superior Saxon young man was in direct
communication with Satan at the present time--well, that needed no
comment but loud laughter.

Yet it was very unwholesome and unhealthy. That was the worst of these
converts; they could not be content with the sober workaday facts of
the Catholic creed. They must be always running after some novelty or
other.... And it was mortal sin anyhow, if the sinner had the faintest
idea--

A large dinner-bell pealed from the back door; and the priest went in
to roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, apple dumplings, and a single
glass of port-wine to end up with.

III

It was strange how Maggie felt steadied and encouraged in the presence
of something at least resembling danger. So long as Laurie was merely
tiresome and foolish, she distrusted herself, she made little rules
and resolutions, and deliberately kept herse