“The priest? Oh, of course.”
“I should like to be as sure as thou art. Can any body baptise?—or must it be done by a priest only?”
“Oh, only—well—” David corrected himself. “Of course the proper person is a priest. But in case of necessity, it can be done by a layman. A woman, even, may do it, if a child be in danger of death. But then, there is no exorcism nor anointing; only just the baptising with water.”
“I should have thought that was all there need be, at any time.”
With that remark Countess dropped the subject. But a few days later she resumed the catechising, though this time she chose Christian as her informant.
“What do Christians mean by baptism?”
Christian paused a moment. She had not hitherto reflected on the esoteric meaning of the ceremony to which she had been ordered to submit as the introductory rite of her new religion.
“I suppose,” she said slowly, “it must mean—confession.”
“Confession of what?” inquired Countess.
“Of our faith in the Lord Jesus,” replied Christian boldly.