o answer you," he said.

That apparently discouraging reply armed Father Benwell with the
absolute confidence of success which he had thus far failed to feel. He
wound his way deeper and deeper into Romayne's mind, with the delicate
ingenuity of penetration, of which the practice of years had made him
master.

"Perhaps I have failed to make myself clearly understood," he said. "I
will try to put it more plainly. You are no half-hearted man, Romayne.
What you believe, you believe fervently. Impressions are not dimly and
slowly produced on _your_ mind. As the necessary result, your conversion
being once accomplished, your whole soul is given to the Faith that is
in you. Do I read your character rightly?"

"So far as I know it--yes."

Father Benwell went on.

"Bear in mind what I have just said," he resumed; "and you will
understand why I feel it my duty to press the question which you have
not answered yet. You have found in the Catholic Faith the peace of mind
which you have failed to obtain by other means. If I had been dealing
with an ordinary man, I should have expected from the change no happier
result than this. But I ask You, has that blessed influence taken no
deeper and nobler hold on your heart? Can you truly say to me, 'I am
content with what I have gained; I wish for no more'?"

"I cannot truly say it," Romayne answered.

The time had now come for speaking plainly. Father Benwell no longer
advanced to his end under cover of a cloud of words.

"A little while since," he said, "you spoke of Penrose as of a man whose
lot in life you longed to share. The career which has associated him
with an Indian mission is, as I told you, only adapted to a man of his
special character and special gifts. But the career which has carried
him into the sacred ranks of the priesthood is open to every man who
feels the sense of divine vocation, which has made Penrose one of Us."

"No, Father Benwell! Not open to every man."

"I say, Yes!"

"It is not open to Me!"

"I say it is open to You. And more--I enjoin, I command, you to dismiss
from your mind all merely human obstacles and discouragements. They are
beneath the notice of a man who feels himself called to the priesthood.
Give me your hand, Romayne! Does your conscience tell you that you are
that man?"

Romayne started to his feet, shaken to the soul by the solemnity of the
appeal.

"I can't dismiss the obstacles that surround me!" he cried,
passionately. "To