Virginia was the first to speak.  “There!” she said, “you’ve let it out yourself; I always knew you would sooner or later.”

“Well,” returned Isadore, drawing herself up haughtily, determined to put a brave face upon the matter, now that there was no retreat, “I’m not ashamed of my faith; nor afraid to attempt its defence against any who may see fit to attack it,” she added with a defiant look at Mr. Daly.

He smiled a little sadly.  “I am very sorry for you, Miss Conly,” he said, “and do not feel at all belligerent toward you; but let me entreat you to rest your hopes of salvation only upon the atoning blood and imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.”

“I must do good works also,” she said.

“Yes as an evidence, but not as the ground of your faith; we must do good works not that we may be saved, but because we are saved.  ’If a man love me, he will keep my words.’  Well, my little Vi? what is it?” for she was looking at him with eager, questioning eyes.

“O, Mr. Daly, I want you to answer some things Isa has said to me.  Isa, I have never mentioned it to any one before.  I have kept your secret faithfully, till now that you have told it yourself.”

“I don’t blame you, Vi,” she answered coloring.  “I presume I shall be blamed for my efforts to bring you over to the true faith, but my conscience acquits me of any bad motive.  I wanted to save your soul.  Mr. Daly, I do not imagine you can answer all that I have to bring against the claims of Protestantism.  Pray where was that church before the Reformation?”

There was something annoying to the girl in the smile with which he heard her question.

“Wherever the Bible was made the rule of faith and practice,” he said, “there was Protestantism though existing under another name.  All through the dark ages, when Popery was dominant almost all over the civilized world, the light of a pure gospel—­the very same that the Reformation spread abroad over other parts of Europe—­burned brightly among the secluded valleys of Piedmont; and twelve hundred years of bloody persecution on the part of apostate Rome could not quench it.

“I know that Popery lays great stress on her claims to antiquity, but Paganism is older still, and evangelical religion—­which, as I have already said, is Protestantism under another name—­is as old as the Christian Era; as the human nature of its founder, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“You are making assertions,” said Isadore bridling, “but where are your proofs?”

“They are not wanting,” he said.  “Suppose we undertake the study of ecclesiastical history together, and see how Popery was the growth of centuries, as one error after another crept into the Christian church.”

“I don’t believe she was ever the persecutor you would make her out to have been,” said Isadore.

“Popish historians bear witness to it as well as Protestant,” he answered.