as men—­ and women, as Gherardi well recognised, are the chief supporters of the Papal system.  Uneasily he thought of a certain wealthy American heiress whom he had persuaded into thinking herself specially favoured and watched over by the Virgin Mary, and who, overcome by the strong imaginary consciousness of this heavenly protection, had signed away in her will a million of pounds sterling to a particular “shrine” in which he had the largest share of financial profit.  Now, suppose she should chance to come within the radius of Leigh’s attractive personality and teaching, and revoke this bequest?  Deeply incensed he sat considering, yet he was conscious enough of his own impotency to persuade or move this man a jot.

“I am very sorry,” he said at last without raising his eyes, and carefully preserving an equable and mild tone of voice, “I am sorry you are so harsh in your judgments, Mr. Leigh;—­and still more sorry that you appear to be bent on opposing the Roman Catholic movement in England.  I will do you the justice to believe that you are moved by a sincere though erroneous conviction,—­and it is out of pure kindness and interest in you that I warn you how useless you will find the task in which you have engaged.  The force of Rome is impregnable!—­the interpretation of the Gospel by the Pope infallible.  Any man, no matter how gifted with eloquence, or moved by what he imagines to be truth-(and alas! how often error is mistaken for truth and truth for error!)—­must be crushed in the endeavour to cope with such a divinely ordained power.”

“The Car of Juggernaut was considered to be divinely ordained,” said Aubrey, “And the wretched and ignorant populace flung themselves under it in the fit of hysterical mania to which they were excited by the priests of the god, and so perished in their thousands.  Not they were to blame; but the men who invented the imposture and encouraged the slaughter.  They had an ideal;—­the priests had none!  But Juggernaut had its end—­and so will Rome!”

“You call yourself a Christian?” asked Gherardi, with a touch of derision.

“Most assuredly I do,” replied Aubrey, “Most assuredly I am!  I love and honour Christ with every fibre of my being.  I long to see that Divine Splendour of the ages stand out white and shining and free from the mud and slime with which His priests have bespattered Him.  I believe in Him absolutely!  But I can find nowhere in His Gospel that He wished us to turn Religion into a sort of stock-jobbing company managed by sacerdotal directors in Rome!”

“What do you know about the ‘sacerdotal directors’ as you call them, of Rome?” asked Gherardi slowly, his eyes narrowing at the corners, and his whole countenance expressing ineffable disdain, “Do you think we give out the complex and necessary workings of our sacred business to the uneducated public?”