taint of these country "common schools." His reverence the doctor
furthermore added, that Mr. Prying had no objection to the arrangement
he proposed, and that he had conquered the repugnance that Mrs. Prying
had to the separation of the brothers by the very flattering terms on
which he offered _to do_ for the child.

In a postscript of this letter, it was stated by this veracious
_Christian minister_, as he signed himself, that he would send Paul
quarterly or monthly bulletins of Eugene's progress in science and
virtue, and, above all, that his faith should not be tampered with in
the slightest.

The effect of such an artful piece of diplomacy may be easily
conceived. The bait of the parson took, and Paul was for once
overreached. The unsuspecting youth took this gentleman to be a
clergyman of the same stamp with his friends Rev. Messrs. Strongly and
H----. And the fact that Parson Dilman was acquainted with the former
honorable men, was enough to throw Paul off his guard. The parson's
talk, too, about "_Catholic education_," and the "barbarous" common
schools, served still to deceive, not only Paul, but even the professors
of the college to whom the epistle of Parson Dilman was submitted for
advice and direction.

Paul was enthusiastic in the praise of his two reverend convert friends
in Vermont, (who were the only two Protestant parsons he intimately knew
before or after conversion,) and hence, when questioned by the
professors about what he might know of his correspondent, he answered
that he knew nothing; but the fact of his intimacy and acquaintance with
the ex-parsons Strongly and H----, his friends and patrons, was "a good
sign of his honesty and honor." The shrewd Jesuit professors smiling at