He stopped, in distress.
"Unfortunately, dear, I have promised the money. It must be found within six weeks—and I see no other way."
She thought that he spoke stiffly, and she resented the small effect of her appeal.
"And you won't bend a single prejudice to—to save such a family possession—though I care for it so much?"
He came up to her with outstretched hands.
"I have been trying to save it all these weeks! Nothing but such a cause as this could have stood in the way. It is not a prejudice, darling—believe me!—it belongs, for me at any rate, to Catholic obligation."
She took no notice of the hands. With her own she clung to the table behind her.
"Why do you give so much to the Sisters? It is not right! They give a very bad education!"
He stared at her. How pale she had grown—and this half-stifled voice!——
"I think we must be the judges of that," he said, dropping his hands. "We teach what we hold most important."