"I was afraid only because you might think—"
She stopped.
"My dear child, what a coward you are!" he exclaimed, half laughing. "You are worse than Dora. She had not such an air of terror when she broke my precious Palissy plate. Must I apply the thumbscrew?"
She turned toward him suddenly, and with a look stopped his raillery.
"Would you be much displeased, Mr. Granger, if I should be a Catholic?" she asked; then held her breath while she awaited his reply.
His first expression was one of utter astonishment.
"But you are not in earnest!" he said, after a moment. "This is only a fancy."
"Don't believe that!" said Margaret. "I am so firmly a Catholic that I would die for the faith. It has been growing in my mind a long time; and now the work is finished. I could not go back, even to please you, Mr. Granger. I must follow my convictions."
"Certainly," he said very quietly, looking down. "No one has a right to interfere with your convictions. Do you intend to become openly a Catholic, and leave your own church for that?"
"I do not know how to believe one thing and say another," she replied. "I am to be baptized as soon as I go in town."