He never shirked his duty. It was his
duty that morning to confer with Mr. Parker anent the delayed funeral
and other painfully material matters. For the deceased lady had not
deserted the creed of her fathers; she was an ardent Catholic--so ardent
that she professed great pain at her stepbrother's alien leanings and
had taken considerable trouble to convert him to her own way of
thinking. She used to say, in her flowery language, that his
contumacious attitude towards the true Faith gnawed at her
vitals--meaning, presumably, that it annoyed her. Often she pointed out
how many social and other advantages they would gain--living in a
Catholic country--if he, too, could bring himself to enter the field of
believers. In vain! The Commissioner had a knack of being
ultra-protestant on such occasions.
Not that he greatly cared to what Church he belonged. But if nobody
made it worth his while--why, he remained an Englishman. He knew
perfectly well that the parroco, his lady's confessor, was anxious to
do something in the proselytizing line which might lower the prestige
of Don Francesco.
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