Well, if he could be a fool, so could Kim.
He showed nothing of his mind when Father Victor, for three long mornings, discoursed to him of an entirely new set of Gods and Godlings--notably of a Goddess called Mary, who, he gathered, was one with Bibi Miriam of Mahbub Ali's theology.

He betrayed no emotion when, after the lecture, Father Victor dragged him from shop to shop buying articles of outfit, nor when envious drummer-boys kicked him because he was going to a superior school did he complain, but awaited the play of circumstances with an interested soul.

Father Victor, good man, took him to the station, put him into an empty second-class next to Colonel Creighton's first, and bade him farewell with genuine feeling.
'They'll make a man o' you, O'Hara, at St Xavier's--a white man, an', I hope, a good man.

They know all about your comin', an' the Colonel will see that ye're not lost or mislaid anywhere on the road.

I've given you a notion of religious matters,--at least I hope so,--and you'll remember, when they ask you your religion, that you're a Cath'lic.