"Unselfishness among other things," said Alice.
He objected frankly to her suggestion. "I don't know about unselfishness. I have my doubts about unselfishness. Are you sure?"
"Most ideals include it, I believe."
"I don't know that I have any ideals--abstract ideals, that is. Though I once took quite an interest in the Catholic Church."
"An academic interest."
"No, no; a real and concrete interest. I admire it greatly. I tried once to look into its claims. What in part discouraged me was the unpleasant things Catholics themselves told me about their church."
"They must have been bad Catholics."
"I don't know enough about them to discriminate between the good and the bad. What, by the way," he asked bluntly, "are you--a good Catholic or a bad one?"
She was taken for an instant aback; then she regarded him with an expression he did not often see in her eyes. "I am a bad one, I am ashamed to say."
"Then these I speak of must have been good ones," he remarked at once, "because they were not in the least like you."