She nodded, but almost uninterestedly; and Percy was conscious of a tiny prick of compunction at his own heart. After all, the reconciling of a soul to God was a greater thing than the reconciling of East to West.
“It may make a difference to Mr. Brand,” he said. “He will be a great man, now, you know.”
She still looked at him in silence, smiling a little. Percy was astonished at the youthfulness of that old face. Then her face changed.
“Father, I must not keep you; but tell me this—Who is this man?”
“Felsenburgh?”
“Yes.”
“No one knows. We shall know more to-morrow. He is in town to-night.”
She looked so strange that Percy for an instant thought it was a seizure. Her face seemed to fall away in a kind of emotion, half cunning, half fear.
“Well, my child?”
“Father, I am a little afraid when I think of that man. He cannot harm me, can he? I am safe now? I am a Catholic—?”