"Of manners? Yes, I suppose so. And of morality, let us hope."
"You are not certain? What have you found out, what departure from the standard in other places? Mon—Dieu! I hope not—you are thinking of Montreal and the Hotel-Champlain!"
"The chief vice I have encountered here," returned Ringfield firmly, "is drink, and as a result other things connected with it, ensuing naturally."
Miss Clairville sat down suddenly, and as she did so her draperies whorled about her till she looked like some crimson flower with her dark head for its centre. "Oh!" she said under her breath, "surely there are worse things than drink!" Some latent emotion betrayed itself in her voice; small wonder, he thought, if Crabbe were really anything to her.
"Certainly there are, but they are easier to deal with. There is my difficulty, for I know I am going to find it very difficult to make an impression, to work any lasting reform here."
"And you wish to?"
"I wish to if I can."
"I thought at first you were only a preacher."
He laughed. "Only a preacher! That conveys a great deal. You must have but a poor idea of my vocation, of the saving grace and special power of all true religion."
"Religion! But if religion can do so much, why would not Father Rielle succeed as well as you?"