and his red cap that made me miss that last tilt at
the peg, and a good thing I did miss it. Providential, as Father
Mathias would say."

"Father Mathias? Have you seen him lately?" said Clare.

"We travelled part of the way together when I was coming back from
Lyall's. We were caught in a nasty dry thunderstorm and took refuge in
Zwabeka's kraal. It was there I overheard that nice little conspiracy."

"And so you travelled with Father Mathias?" said Clare. "I hope you
were nice to him. He is a great friend of ours."

"Nice to him, Miss Vidal?" answered Lamont, raising his brows as if
amused at the question. "Why not? He is a very nice man. Why should I
be other than nice to him?"

"Oh, I don't know. Except that--well, he is a priest."

"What then? Oh, I see what you mean. But I have no prejudice against
priests. On the contrary--my experience of them is that they are
kindly, tolerant men, very self-sacrificing and with considerable
knowledge of human nature. When you've said that, it follows that they
are almost invariably good company. This one was decidedly so. Why on
earth should I not be `nice' to him?"

"Oh well, you know--you Protestants do have prejudices of the kind," she
answered somewhat lamely.

"But I am not a Protestant."

"Not a Protestant? I don't quite understand."

"Certainly not I don't protest against anything or anybody. I believe
in competition, and if the Catholic Church were to capture this country,
or England, or the entire world for that matter, I should reckon that
the very fact of doing so would be to establish its claim to the right
to do so."

Woman the apostle--woman the missioner--felt moved to say, "Why don't
you examine her claims to do so, and then aid in furthering them?" But
Clare Vidal, looking at the speaker, only quoted to herself, "Thou art
not far from the kingdom of heaven."

"As a matter of fact," went on Lamont, "I find among Catholics far more
tolerance--using the word in its broad, work-a-day sense--than among
those belonging to any other creed. By the way--are you one, may I
ask?"

"Why, of course."

"I didn't know. Well, you must take my opinion--given in utter
ignorance of the fact--for what it's worth. There's a sort of a
Catholic colony near my place at home, and the priest is one of my most
valued friends."

Clare brightened.

"Really?" she said. "How nice. But, Mr Lamont, how is it you live
over here? Do you prefer this