Miss Arundel.

"Why?" said Miss Arundel.

"Because we were in the midst of a very interesting conversation on
idolatry and on worship in groves, when Lady St. Jerome summoned us to
our drive. This seems a grove where one might worship."

"Father Coleman ought to be at Rome," said Miss Arundel. "He was to have
passed Holy Week there. I know not why he changed his plans."

"Are you angry with him for it?"

"No, not angry, but surprised; surprised that any one might be at Rome,
and yet be absent from it."

"You like Rome?"

"I have never been there. It is the wish of my life."

"May I say to you what you said to me just now--why?"

"Naturally, because I would wish to witness the ceremonies of the Church
in their most perfect form."

"But they are fulfilled in this country, I have heard, with much
splendor and precision."

Miss Arundel shook her head.

"Oh! no," she said; "in this country we are only just emerging from the
catacombs. If the ceremonies of the Church were adequately fulfilled in
England, we should hear very little of English infidelity."

"That is saying a great deal," observed Lothair, inquiringly.

"Had I that command of wealth of which we hear so much in the present
day, and with which the possessors seem to know so little what to do, I
would purchase some of those squalid streets in Westminster, which are
the shame of the metropolis, and clear a great space and build a real
cathedral, where the worship of heaven should be perpetually conducted
in the full spirit of the ordinances of the Church. I believe, were this
done, even this country might be saved."

CHAPTER 16

Lothair began to meditate on two great ideas--the reconciliation of
Christendom, and the influence of architecture on religion. If the
differences between the Roman and Anglican Churches, and between the
papacy and Protestantism generally arose, as Father Coleman assured
him, and seemed to prove, in mere misconception, reconciliation, though
difficult, did not seem impossible, and appeared to be one of the most
efficient modes of defeating the atheists. It was a result which, of
course, mainly depended on the authority of Reason; but the power of
the imagination might also be enlisted in the good cause through the
influence of the fine arts, of which the great mission is to excite,
and at the same time elevate, the feelings of the human family. Lothair
found himself frequently in a reverie over Miss Arundel's ideal