"Yes; he is God. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' 'And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.'" "Ah! and was not the Virgin Mary his mother?'" Vi looked perplexed for a moment, then brightening, "Ah, I know now,'" she said, "Jesus was God and man both.'" "Well?" "And--mamma told me--Mary was the mother of his human nature only, and it is blasphemous to call her the mother of God; and to do her homage is idolatry." "So I thought before I went to the convent," said Isadore, "but the sisters convinced me of my error. Vi, I should like to show you something. Can you keep a secret?" "I have never had a secret from mamma; I do not wish to have any." "But you can't tell her everything now while she's away, and this concerns no one but myself. I know I can trust to your honor," and taking Vi's hand, she opened a door and drew her into a large closet, lighted by a small circular window quite high up in the wall. The place was fitted up as an oratory, with a picture of the Virgin and child, and a crucifix, standing on a little table with a prayer-book and rosary beside it. Vi had never seen such things, but she had heard of them and knew what they signified. Glancing from the picture to the crucifix, she started back in horror, and without a word hastily retreated to the dressing-room, where she dropped into a chair, pale, trembling and distressed. "Isadore, Isadore!" she cried, clasping her hands, and lifting her troubled eyes to her cousin's face, "have you--have you become a papist?" "I am a member of the one true church," returned her cousin coldly. "How bigoted you are, Violet. I could not have believed it of so sweet and gentle a young thing as you. I trust you will not consider it your duty to betray me to mamma?" "Betray you? can you think I would? So Aunt Louise does not know? Oh, Isa, can you think it right to hide it from her--your own mother?" "Yes; because I was directed to do so by my father confessor, and because my motive is a good one, and 'the end sanctifies the means.'" "Isa, mamma has taught me, and the Bible says it too, that it is never right to do evil that good may come." "Perhaps you and your mamma do not always understand the real meaning of what the Bible says. It must be that many people misunderstand it, else why are there so many denominations of Protestants, teaching opposite doctrines, and all professing to get them from the Bible?" Violet in her extreme youth and want of information and ability to argue, was not prepared with an answer. "Does Virgy know?" she asked. "About my change of views and my oratory? Yes." "And does she----" "Virgy is altogether worldly, and cares nothing for religion of any kind." Vi's face was full of distress; "Isa," she said, "may I ask you a question?" "What is it?" "When you pray, do you kneel before that--that----" "Crucifix? sometimes, at others before the Virgin and child."