’England must be falling into atheism if newspapers dare to print such interviews,’ Father Oliver said; and he threw the paper aside angrily.  ‘And it was I,’ he continued, dropping into his armchair, ’that drove her into this atheistical country.  I am responsible, I alone.’

From Father Oliver Gogarty to Miss Glynn.

’GARRANARD, BOHOLA,

’August 10, 19—.

’DEAR Miss Glynn,

’I have a piece of news for you.  Father O’Grady has been here, and left me a few hours ago.  Catherine threw open the door, saying, “Father O’Grady, your reverence,” and the small, frail man whom you know so well walked into the room, surprising me, who was altogether taken aback by the unexpectedness of his visit.

’He was the last person in the world I expected at that moment to meet, yet it was natural that an Irish priest, on the mission in England, would like to spend his holidays in Ireland, and still more natural that, finding himself in Ireland, Father O’Grady should come to see me.  He drove over from Tinnick, and we talked about you.  He did not seem on the whole as anxious for your spiritual safety as I am, which is only what one might expect, for it was not he that drove you out of a Catholic country into a Protestant one.  He tried to allay my fears, saying that I must not let remorse of conscience get hold of me, and he encouraged me to believe that my responsibility had long ago ended.  It was pleasant to hear these things said, and I believed him in a way; but he left by accident or design a copy of Illustrated England on my table.  I am sufficiently broad-minded to believe that it is better to be a good Protestant than a bad Catholic; but Mr. Walter Poole is neither Catholic nor Protestant, but an agnostic, which is only a polite word for an atheist.  Week in and week out you will hear every argument that may be used against our holy religion.  It is true that you have the advantage of being born a Catholic, and were well instructed in your religion; and no doubt you will accept with caution his statements, particularly that very insidious statement that Jesus lays no claim to divinity in the three Synoptic Gospels, and that these were not written by the apostles themselves, but by Greeks sixty, seventy, or perhaps eighty years after his death.  I do not say he will try to undermine your faith, but how can he do otherwise if he believe in what he writes?  However careful he may be to avoid blasphemy in your presence, the fact remains that you are living in an essentially unchristian atmosphere, and little by little the poison which you are taking in will accumulate, and you will find that you have been influenced without knowing when or how.