--I'm sure of that. Last year,"--he
turned to the old man again,--"Countess K. joined some Roman Convent
abroad. Our people never seem to be able to offer any resistance so soon
as they get into the hands of these--intriguers--especially abroad."

"That is all thanks to our lassitude, I think," replied the old man,
with authority. "And then their way of preaching; they have a skilful
manner of doing it! And they know how to startle one, too. I got quite
a fright myself in '32, in Vienna, I assure you; but I didn't cave in to
them, I ran away instead, ha, ha!"

"Come, come, I've always heard that you ran away with the beautiful
Countess Levitsky that time--throwing up everything in order to do
it--and not from the Jesuits at all," said Princess Bielokonski,
suddenly.

"Well, yes--but we call it from the Jesuits, you know; it comes to
the same thing," laughed the old fellow, delighted with the pleasant
recollection.

"You seem to be very religious," he continued, kindly, addressing the
prince, "which is a thing one meets so seldom nowadays among young
people."

The prince was listening open-mouthed, and still in a condition of
excited agitation. The old man was evidently interested in him, and
anxious to study him more closely.

"Pavlicheff was a man of bright intellect and a good Christian, a
sincere Christian," said the prince, suddenly. "How could he possibly
embrace a faith which is unchristian? Roman Catholicism is, so to speak,
simply the same thing as unchristianity," he added with flashing eyes,
which seemed to take in everybody in the room.

"Come, that's a little TOO strong, isn't it?" murmured the old man,
glancing at General Epanchin in surprise.

"How do you make out that the Roman Catholic religion is UNCHRISTIAN?
What is it, then?" asked Ivan Petrovitch, turning to the prince.

"It is not a Christian religion, in the first place," said the latter,
in extreme agitation, quite out of proportion to the necessity of the
moment. "And in the second place, Roman Catholicism is, in my opinion,
worse than Atheism itself. Yes--that is my opinion. Atheism only
preaches a negation, but Romanism goes further; it preaches a
disfigured, distorted Christ--it preaches Anti-Christ--I assure you, I
swear it! This is my own personal conviction, and it has long distressed
me. The Roman Catholic believes that the Church on earth cannot stand
without universal temporal Power. He cries 'non possumus!' In my
opinion the