romised to
marry me, although a thousand difficulties were to be overcome. Now,
that you are your own mistress, according to every human probability,
and you are at perfect liberty, free from any scruples about the right
and wrong of the thing, and yet--and yet how strange! You have scruples
more binding a hundred fold. And Father Ryan, the gentlest, quietest
person, whom you would not believe could say _no_, whom I made sure I
could prevail upon to intercede for me, is just as resolute as Napoleon,
as unyielding as Draco. What does it mean? Is it in the religion or
what?"

"I believe, Hubert, it is the love of God in the heart. We love God
better than the world, or aught the world can offer. We love God so
well, that we fear to break His holy law," replied Althea.

"But others love God too, who are not Catholics, but they are not so
inexorably bound."

"They have not the restraints of the Church. They have not its laws to
govern them, its teachings to instruct, its pastors to guide and direct.
Moreover, they cannot expect heavenly graces in abundance who are out of
the true Church. Christ's promise of assistance is to His Church, His
anathema against those who will not hear it."

"It looks to me as though you had taken upon yourself a yoke, and the
bonds of servitude," Hubert remarked disconsolately.

"The bonds of the dear Lord Jesus, yes," and Althea's countenance glowed
with enthusiasm.

"But Christian bonds should not press so heavily. Protestants in all
these things do as they please, yet they profess to be bound with the
same fetters."

"Profess! what use in professing when every day they burst them asunder
as would they gossamer threads? I assure you, Hubert, that is one of the
beauties of the Catholic Church. Its laws are so binding, its teachings
so direct, its discipline so perfect, that one cannot stray away
blindly. The obedient child who would be pained not to do the Father's
will is kept in the straight and narrow way, the light is held steadily
before his eyes; if he stumble or turn aside he is brought back, and if
he become restive and the 'fetters,' grateful to the loving child, bind
too galling he throws them off, more willing to be lost than bear
self-denial for the present. For myself, Hubert, I have started for
heaven, confident of arriving if I follow the path marked out for me. If
I do not follow in that path I have no hope but of straying far from
that desired haven, the happy land of s