"Nay, do not deny it, whether by words or looks or acts, 'tis all the same; there was no Catholicity in the family until you came into it, and now I clearly see some means must be used to prevent its spreading."
"But," said Madame de Meglior, "in this instance you have forgotten that Eugene is almost always at Cambridge; how does my daughter's religion influence him there?"
"I do not know, but you see it has; the boy was well brought up, was rational and intelligent; and now to adopt these follies! He, the representative of my father's house, too!"
Madame de Meglior was now vexed, but she ventured no reply; it was impolitic to offend the duchess. She liked Durimond Castle better than Estcourt Hall; secretly she hoped that Euphrasie had made an impression on Eugene's heart. She would like to have seen them married, and she well knew that Euphrasie would not marry one out of the pale of the church. Religion was, to madame herself, nothing. She was a no-thinker, not an unbeliever: she had lived nearly all her life in France, among people who sometimes went to mass for form's sake, and who called themselves Catholics, and she could not comprehend the bitter feeling with which her countrymen regarded the Catholic Church. She thought children should be taught religion; it made them dutiful, and for her part she did not see that her husband's daughter was inferior to her nieces. She, however, smothered her vexation, as she said:
"You think too much of these vagaries, my dear niece. This is the age of tolerance; we must be lenient to youthful folly."
"This is a serious folly, aunt," replied the duchess. "It would make a commotion throughout the kingdom, were my father's heir to turn Catholic."
"Yet the wars of the Pretender are long since at an end. Europe scarcely knows whether a representative of the Stuart line is living. It is time these feuds should cease. I thought 'freedom of thought' was the watchword of the Godfrey family."
"What freedom of thought is there in Catholicity?" asked the duchess.
"Nay, that I know not; but I think freedom of thought means that each one may be of the religion he thinks best."