hree other convents, and I know how jealous the managers are that
the secrets of their prison-houses should be revealed. Their aim is to
prove they have nothing to conceal, and that all is open as noon-day;
but the moment troublesome questions are asked, they exhibit a reticence
as to their rules and practices which shows how conscious they are that
outsiders will object to them."

Before the general took his leave, it was arranged between him and Mr
Franklin that they should go over together to Epsworth, and act
according to circumstances. As he drove home he expressed a hope to the
honest lieutenant that he might be the means of emancipating Miss
Maynard from her present thraldom.

"She has too much sense and right feeling not to be open to conviction,"
answered Mr Sims; "what she wants is to be freed from the evil
influences to which she has of late been exposed, and to have the simple
truth placed before her; only don't let her meet her aunt or Mr Lerew
till she has thoroughly got rid of all her erroneous notions, and
understands the simple gospel as you well know how to put it."

"You may depend on my following your advice," said the general.

On reaching home, the general found a note from Mr Lennard. He wrote
in great distress of mind. He had received a letter from a friend at
Oxford, telling him that his son had left the university in company with
a Romish priest, and had declared his intention of seeking admission
into the Church of Rome. Mr Lennard was anxious, if possible, to find
out his son, and prevent him from taking the fatal step, at the same
time that he wished to be with his poor little girl at Cheltenham.

"I am afraid," he continued, "that the tutor under whom I placed my boy,
by Mr Lerew's advice, has had much to do with it. I now hear that
three or four of his previous pupils have become Romanists, and others,
by all accounts, are likely to go over. I object to my son's becoming a
Romanist, though I consider that the Church of Rome is the mother of all
Churches, and has the advantage of antiquity on her side."

"The mother of all abominations!" exclaimed the general to himself. "I
must endeavour to set my friend right on that subject, if he holds that
fundamental error."

The general was a man of action. After taking a hurried meal, he drove
on to the house of Mr Lennard. His journey to Cheltenham had been
delayed, and he was now hesitating whether first to go in search of his
son