I had been thinking the same thing," she said, almost
in a whisper.

Now Philip knew very well what his wife meant. _He_, too, had thought
the same thing. But he pretended to be in the dark, and abruptly
demanded:

"The same _what_ thing? Why must you speak so enigmatically?"

"O, Philip, you could have done so much more and better without me. I
have done nothing, and have hindered you."

"And what are you going to do about it?" said Philip, coldly.

"Why, Philip, what _is_ the matter with you? How strangely you answer
me!" cried Della, excitedly.

"Never mind me now, Della I am not myself to-night; go to sleep."

Truly, thought Della, he is not himself; so she prudently resolved to
defer her "something to say" to a more favorable season.

For the next eight or nine hours Philip's mind was in a whirlpool. While
a student at Princeton, the lectures of Cardinal Wiseman had chanced to
fall in his way. He read them with avidity, particularly those "On the
Practical Success of the Protestant Rule of Faith in Converting Heathen
Nations," and "On the Practical Success of the Catholic Rule of Faith in
Converting Heathen Nations." They left upon his mind unpleasant
impressions, and created doubts and misgivings which his tutors could
with difficulty dispel. But he shut his eyes, blinded his mind, and
allowed the hour of his visitation to pass by. Now, the words of this
Mr. Chase, a stray traveler, roaming through the world without aim or
object, so far as known, had aroused this slumbering phantom of the
past, and provoked, if not challenged, him anew. He recalled the story
of Catholic missions that had read to him like a continuation of
Apostolic labors; statistics, gathered altogether from Protestant
sources, showed them to be overwhelmingly successful; the gift of
miracles and the gifts of the Holy Ghost had descended upon them, and
crowns of martyrdom numerous and shining. He had even thought with a
thrill that had he never met Della it would be glorious to join this
lion-hearted band, whose symbol was the ever-upborne Cross! But there
had avalanched down upon this temporary glow such a storm of ridicule
against Transubstantiation, worship of the Blessed Virgin and of dead
men's bones and cast-off garments, and the putrified corruptions of the
Man of Sin generally, that the one generous, struggling spark was
extinguished. Of the great Protestant Foreign Missionary Society, for
which so much money had been expended,