the way at present. Do you know the Camerons of Redbank Farm at all?"

"Camerons of Redbank! Why, they're Protestants!"

"Tell me something I don't know already," he retorted.

"I can say very little about them. There are two brothers, I
believe--one very middle-aged and the other less so. I may have passed
the time of day with one or the other."

"Well, it's the less middle-aged one--Lachlan by name--who wants to
marry Christian. It's all right about religion. He's ready to make
all the necessary promises, and moreover, remarked quite spontaneously
that he intended coming to church with his wife after they were
married--a most unusual undertaking in these cases. He's evidently
merely ignorant of everything Catholic; not bigoted, really. With a
wife like Christian, he is most likely to enter the Church himself
eventually."

"But what are these almost insurmountable obstacles?"

"Chiefly financial. It seems that the elder brother is the actual
tenant of Redbank, and Lachlan is little better than a farm-servant at
present. It would be scarcely possible for the poor chap to support a
wife and three of a ready-made family on the wages of a mere
plowman--except, of course, in the style of a common laborer, and he is
far above that. The best way out of the difficulty would be for
Christian to manage the house at Redbank, instead of a paid
housekeeper; but the old brother is bitter against Catholics, and more
opposed to young children in the house. Hence these tears! Don't you