I
could have wished it otherwise.

"I do not mean as to worldly matters," she went on hastily, seeing that
Captain Davenant was about to speak. "That weighed absolutely nothing
with me. Indeed, they may be considered to be well matched in that
respect. If the war is decided in favour of King William, Claire will be
a rich heiress. If, on the other hand, your cause triumph, you will
regain your confiscated estates, while we shall lose ours. So that there
is, I consider, no inequality whatever in their position. The difficulty,
of course, to which I allude is their religion. This is naturally a grave
obstacle, and I fear that my husband will regard it as such, even more
strongly than I do. He is, however, extremely attached to Claire, and
will, I feel sure, when he sees that her happiness is at stake, come
round to my views of the matter.

"There are," she said with a smile, "Catholics and Catholics, just as
there are Protestants and Protestants. I would rather see Claire in her
grave than married to many Catholics I know; but neither you nor Walter
are bigots."

"No, indeed," Captain Davenant said. "We came over to this country when
Catholicism was the religion of all England, and we have maintained the
religious belief of our fathers. I own that what I may call political
Protestantism is hateful to me; but between such Catholicism as mine, and
such Protestantism as yours, I see no such broad distinctions as should
cause us to hate each other."

"That is just my view," Mrs. Conyers agreed. "The differences between the
creeds are political rather than religious, and, in any case, I consider
that when neither of the parties is bigoted, the chances of happiness are
greater in the case where the man is a Catholic and the woman a
Protestant, than in the opposite case."

"I think so, too," Captain Davenant said. "At any rate, I do not think
that Walter and Claire would be likely to quarrel over their respective
opinions."

"I think not," Mrs. Conyers agreed with a smile. "I do wish, with all my
heart, that it had been otherwise; but, as it is not so, I for my part am
determined to make the best of the circumstances. They are both young,
and it is possible that they may, in time, come to think alike, one way
or the other. I am not one of those who think that there is but one way
to heaven; and, should Walter some day win Claire over to his way of
thinking, I shall not consider that she has forfeited her chances."

"It