“I only want just the shortest answer,” she said.  “It is really important for me to know at once.  You see, this new law comes into force—–­”

He nodded.

“Well—­very briefly, I should say this:  Catholics say that God can be perceived by reason; that from the arrangements of the world they can deduce that there must have been an Arranger—­a Mind, you understand.  Then they say that they deduce other things about God—­that He is Love, for example, because of happiness—–­”

“And the pain?” she interrupted.

He smiled again.

“Yes.  That is the point—­that is the weak point.”

“But what do they say about that?”

“Well, briefly, they say that pain is the result of sin—–­”

“And sin?  You see, I know nothing at all, Mr. Francis.”

“Well, sin is the rebellion of man’s will against God’s.”

“What do they mean by that?”

“Well, you see, they say that God wanted to be loved by His creatures, so He made them free; otherwise they could not really love.  But if they were free, it means that they could if they liked refuse to love and obey God; and that is what is called Sin.  You see what nonsense—–­”

She jerked her head a little.

“Yes, yes,” she said.  “But I really want to get at what they think....  Well, then, that is all?”

Mr. Francis pursed his lips.

“Scarcely,” he said; “that is hardly more than what they call Natural Religion.  Catholics believe much more than that.”

“Well?”

“My dear Mrs. Brand, it is impossible to put it in a few words.  But, in brief, they believe that God became man—­that Jesus was God, and that He did this in order to save them from sin by dying—–­”

“By bearing pain, you mean?”

“Yes; by dying.  Well, what they call the Incarnation is really the point.  Everything else flows from that.  And, once a man believes that, I must confess that all the rest follows—­even down to scapulars and holy water.”

“Mr. Francis, I don’t understand a word you’re saying.”

He smiled indulgently.

“Of course not,” he said; “it is all incredible nonsense.  But, you know, I did really believe it all once.”

“But it’s unreasonable,” she said.

He made a little demurring sound.

“Yes,” he said, “in one sense, of course it is—­utterly unreasonable.  But in another sense—–­”

She leaned forward suddenly, and he could catch the glint of her eyes beneath her white veil.

“Ah!” she said, almost breathlessly.  “That is what I want to hear.  Now, tell me how they justify it.”

He paused an instant, considering.

“Well,” he said slowly, “as far as I remember, they say that there are other faculties besides those of reason.  They say, for example, that the heart sometimes finds out things that the reason cannot—­intuitions, you see.  For instance, they say that all things such as self-sacrifice and chivalry and even art—­all come from the heart, that Reason comes with them—­in rules of technique, for instance—­but that it cannot prove them; they are quite apart from that.”