ll say. I know very well that you and Whitecraft will be
hanged, probably from the same rope too, but, in the meantime, I would
save you both if I could. I fear indeed that to save him is out of the
question, because it appears that there's a cart-load of indictments
against him."

"How could you doubt it, sir, when you know the incredible extent of his
villany, both private and public? and yet this is the man to whom you
would have married your daughter!"

"No; when I found Helen reduced to such a state the morning on which
they were to be married, I told her at once that as she felt so bitterly
against him I would never suffer him to become her husband. Neither will
I; if he were acquitted tomorrow I would tell him so; but you, Reilly,
love my daughter for her own sake."

"For her own sake, sir, as you have said, I love her. If she had
millions, it could not increase my affection, and if she had not a
penny, it would not diminish it."

"Well, but you can have her if you wish, notwithstanding."

Reilly first looked at him with amazement; but he was so thoroughly
acquainted with his character, both from what he had seen and heard of
it, that his amazement passed away, and he simply replied:

"Pray how, sir?"

"Why, I'll tell you what, Reilly; except with respect to political
principles, I don't think, after all, that there's the difference of a a
rush between the Papist and the Protestant Churches, as mere religions.
My own opinion is, that there's neither of them any great shakes, as to
any effect they have on society, unless to disturb it. I have known as
good Papists as ever I did Protestants, and indeed I don't know why a
Papist should not be as good a man as a Protestant; nor why a Protestant
should not be as good a man as a Papist, on the other hand. Now, do you
see what I'm driving at?"

"Well, I can't exactly say that I do," replied Reilly.

[Illustration: PAGE 157--There is not a toss-up between them]

"Then the upshot of the argument is this, that there is not a toss-up
between them, and any man getting into a scrape, and who could get out
of it by changing from one to the other--of course I mean from Popery to
Protestantism--would prove himself a man of good sound sense, and above
the prejudices of the world."

The truth is, Reilly saw ere this what Folliard was approaching, and, as
he determined to allow him full scope, his reply was brief:

"You seem fond of indulging in speculation, sir,"