“Then I will have to give you up,” said Father Murray.  “If the Methodist were the one you actually did go to, I might have half a chance to make you a convert; but since you do not go to any, I am afraid that my counsels would fall upon stony ground.  But you will always be welcome to the rectory, even if you do not bother the church,” he added.

“But surely, Father,” said Saunders, “you are not going to stay here?  Hasn’t the Bishop made you his Vicar-General again?  And doesn’t he want you to go back to the Cathedral?”

“That is true,” answered the priest, his face becoming grave.  “But I have grown very fond of Sihasset, and the Bishop has kindly given me permission to remain in charge of the parish here.”

“I don’t quite understand that,” said the visitor in an urging way.  “I should hate to lose you, Father—­for of course I shall stay if the Baron offers me the position, and I’m going to bring the wife and kiddies, too—­I like the place, and I like the people—­but when I was a common soldier, I wanted to be a sergeant, and when I became sergeant I wanted to be a lieutenant.  I suppose if I had gotten the lieutenancy, I should have wanted a captaincy, and then I shouldn’t have been satisfied until I had charge of a battalion—­and so on up the line.  It takes all the ginger out of a man if he has no ambitions.  Why shouldn’t a priest have them, too?”

“Some of them have,” answered Father Murray, “when they are young.  But when they ‘arrive’ they begin to find out the truth of what they were told in the seminary long before—­that ‘arriving’ does not make them any happier.  In the Catholic Church, position means trouble and worry, because it means that you become more of a servant yet assume greater responsibilities.  If a man can center his ambitions in the next world, it makes him a great deal happier in this.  I have had my ambitions—­and I have had them realized, too.  But I found means to transplant them where they belonged.  Having transplanted them, I do not propose to take them out of good heavenly soil and put them back on the earth again.  As they are quite well grown now in the garden of God, I am not going to risk losing them by making a change, if I can help it.  I shall stay in Sihasset if I am permitted to do so.  Should I be called away, that is a different matter.  Please God, when I go out—­to quote my friend, Father Daly—­I’ll go out feet first.”

“I suppose you’re right, Father,” said Saunders, “I suppose you’re right.  Anyhow, I’m glad that you’re going to stay.  By the way, now that you’ve told me one secret, won’t you tell me another?”

Father Murray became very cheerful again.  “I bet I can guess what you want to know now, Saunders.”

“Well, I’ll give you one guess,” answered the detective.

“You want to know,” said Father Murray, “why the Minister gave up so easily.”

“I do,” replied Saunders.  “That’s just what I want to know.  You must have told the Baron, but you have never told me.  I want to know what magic you worked.”