ith such words as
He in the instant moment shall show unto us--the which (nowise contaking
[reproaching] other) we do nathless judge to be more agreeable with Holy
Scripture. But wherefore wouldst know all this, my maid?"

Maude's answer was not a reply according to grammar, but it showed her
thoughts plainly enough. She had been carefully comparing her own
inward convictions with the catalogue as it proceeded. She certainly
could see no harm either in infant baptism or sacred music: as to the
question of forms of prayer, she had never considered it. But on all
the other points, though to her own dismay, she found herself exactly in
agreement with the description given by the Dowager.

"Then I _am_ a Lollard, I account!" she said at last, with a sigh.

"And what if so, my maid?" quietly asked the old lady.

"Good Madam, can I so be, and yet be in unity with the Catholic Church?"
said Maude in a tone of distress. "Methinks 'tis little comfort to be
not yet excommunicate, if I do wit that an' holy Church knew of mine
errors, she should cut me away as a dry branch. And yet--" and a very
puzzled, troubled look came into Maude's face--"what I crede, I crede;
ne can I thereof uncharge [disburden] me."

"My maid," said the Dowager earnestly, looking up, "the true unity of
the Church Catholic is the unity of Christ. He said not `Come into the
Church,' but `Come to Me.' He that is one with Christ cannot be
withoutenside Christ's Church."

No more was said at that time; but what she had heard already left
Maude's mind in a turmoil. She next, but very cautiously, endeavoured
to ascertain the opinions of her mistress. Constance made her explain
her motive in asking, and then laughed heartily.

"By Saint Veronica her sudary, what matter? Names be but names. So
long as a man deal uprightly and keep him from deadly sin--call him
Catholic, call him Lollard--is he the worser man? There be good and ill
of every sort. I have known some weary tykes [really, a sheep-dog; used
as a term of reproach] that were rare Catholics; and I once had a mother
that is with God and His angels now, and men called her a Lollard."

Evidently Constance's practical religion was summed up in the childish
phrase--"Be good." An excellent medicine--if the patient were not
unable to swallow.

Maude tried Bertram next, and felt, to use her own phrase, more "of a
bire" [confused] than ever. For she found him nearly in the same state
of mind