course, the subject. But this did not go on pleasantly. Mr.
Prendergast was desirous of information; but the statements which
were made to him one moment by young Fitzgerald were contradicted in
the next by his aunt. He would declare that the better educated of
the Roman Catholics were prepared to do their duty by their country,
whereas Aunt Letty would consider herself bound both by party
feeling and religious duty, to prove that the Roman Catholics were
bad in everything.

"Oh, Herbert, to hear you say so!" she exclaimed at one time, "it
makes me tremble in my shoes. It is dreadful to think that those
people should have got such a hold over you."

"I really think that the Roman Catholic priests are liberal in their
ideas and moral in their conduct." This was the speech which had
made Aunt Letty tremble in her shoes, and it may, therefore, be
conceived that Mr. Prendergast did not find himself able to form any
firm opinion from the statements then made to him. Instead of doing
so, he set them both down as "Wild Irish," whom it would be insane
to trust, and of whom it was absurd to make inquiries. It may,
however, be possibly the case that Mr. Prendergast himself had his
own prejudices as well as Aunt Letty and Herbert Fitzgerald.

On the following morning they were still more mute at breakfast. The
time was coming in which Mr. Prendergast was to go to work and even
he, gifted though he was with iron nerves, began to feel somewhat
unpleasantly the nature of the task which he had undertaken. Lady
Fitzgerald did not appear at all. Indeed during the whole of
breakfast-time and up to the moment at which Mr. Prendergast was
summoned, she was sitting with her husband, holding his hand in