"An admirable plan," said he slowly, "but liable to some little exceptions, which Sir William will allow me to point out." My mother called to us, and we left the room with her.

The next time we saw my uncle, the priest's reasonings had prevailed.

The following week we all three went to school.

My father had been a Catholic, my mother was of the same creed, and consequently we were brought up in that unpopular faith.

But my uncle, whose religion had been sadly undermined at court, was a terrible caviller at the holy mysteries of Catholicism; and while his friends termed him a Protestant, his enemies hinted, falsely enough, that he was a sceptic.