really shocked to find you tamper so with the virtue of this innocent
girl. You first attempt to reach her pure soul through her vanity, by
praising her dress and accomplishments; and she nobly rejects the
temptation. Next you attempt to conquer her fortitude, by maligning and
ridiculing the most sacred institutions of her holy religion; and here
again you fail. It is the strangest thing in the world, in my mind, that
you should continually annoy that poor orphan, and stranger again, that
her noble fortitude, her piety, her faith, fidelity, and other heroic
virtues have not converted you, and those who have been for years
witness of them, to something like admiration of them."

"But she is so obstinate, Murt," said the old maid.

"Yes," said he, "and in that she is right. Yourself had an opportunity
of information on all these subjects, and, I understand, discussed them
at length with the priest in person. You ought to know better, then,
than to repeat to this child a pure fable, that you dare not hint in the
presence of the priest; namely, that he levies a tax of two shillings or
half a dollar on every penitent whose confession he hears."

"That is generally believed," said she, ashamed that her violent attack
on Bridget had been overheard by one whose good opinion, of late, she
was rather anxious to secure, for a delicate reason that shan't be
mentioned here.

"It is generally _talked_, but not _believed_, dear miss, unless by the
idiots and children into whose minds it is continually dinned by
malicious persons, who know that their occupation would be gone if the
truth were known, and who struggle to shut out the light and knowledge
of Catholicity from the souls of their wretched hearers with the same