ay, now, to Paul, who is forever estranged from
you? for he is not only a priest, but a missionary among the 'Irish,'
and, of course, can never care about you again."

"I am glad to hear he is a priest," said Mary, in a gentle voice; "for I
believe he will be more happy so than in any other situation in life. I
am sure I wish him happy, for he was ever good and amiable."

"But yet," rejoined the old maid, "he never made you any return for all
your fondness for him. He never writes you any loving letters, nor
cares whether you are living or dead, or else he would write, or send
you some tokens of friendship."

"You know a little too much, Amanda," said Mary. "I never asked him to
write; and I know he loves me so far as to pray for me, and that's all
he ever pretended to; and as for presents, I do not covet them, as I
have got this beautiful one, a miniature of the mother of God, set in
gold, which Paul presented to me when here last. See it here," she said,
drawing it from her bosom. "I would not give this for all the presents
in New York."

"Idolatry! idolatry!" cried out Amanda. "Idolatry!" cried out Calvin and
the rest of the family. "Idolatry! yes, as the Lord liveth," groaned a
hollow, dramatic voice, as he entered by the woodshed way to the dining
room. It was that of Rev. Mr. Gulmore, who after a long absence, hearing
the Romanizing tendencies that threatened to desolate this once stanch
Presbyterian family, came, he said, "with his sickle," to cut down the
cockles, and "weed out this once fertile but now overgrown garden."

"What is this I have been hearing?" thundered the little thick man,
stamping on the floor. "Is it possible that my senses deceive me? or
have I heard and seen the daughter of my friend, my Orthodox--once
Orthodox--friend, draw forth her idolatrous bawble from her American
bosom, and defend its use and veneration with her tongue? Is this true?
Tell me! Speak!"

There was a short pause after this short declamation, delivered in the
most passionate form. At length, Mr. Prying, senior, coolly answered,
"Yes, Mr. Gulmore, I 'spect Mary is lost to your church, and inclined to
the Catholic system."

"O Lord, forbid it!" cried the little thick man in white choker. "It
cannot be; we cannot allow it. I shall storm heaven with prayers. I
shall do violence to the Lord. I shall catch hold of him, and not let
him go till he give back this lamb to my bosom."

Such were only _some_ of the expressions